Global shipping earnings have hit an unprecedented $84,951 per day, with Clarksons Research's cross-sector ClarkSea Index jumping 12% in a single week to its fifth consecutive all-time high.

The index — a widely followed barometer averaging daily earnings across tankers, bulk carriers, containerships and gas carriers, weighted by vessel numbers in each sector — covers roughly 80% of global shipping capacity. The latest reading dwarfs the $50,714-per-day peak of the 2007 supercycle.

This year's average is running 70% above 2025 and 87% ahead of the ten-year trend, according to Clarksons data.

What is driving the surge?

Crude tankers are doing the heavy lifting. Average VLCC earnings jumped another 21% last week to $804,601 a day. Suezmaxes climbed 17% to $724,398, while aframaxes surged 46% to $393,951.

The rest of the market is more mixed:

• Dry bulk has softened, with capesize earnings retreating 16% to $31,130 and overall bulker earnings slipping 3% to $22,319.
• Containers remain exceptionally resilient, with the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index at 3,664 points — 215% higher year-on-year.
• VLGCs are earning record rates, reaching $209,000 a day on the US Gulf–Japan route.
• LNG carriers are the conspicuous laggard, with modern spot earnings down 19% to $34,250.

Why are rates staying this high?

Broker Hartland points the finger squarely at geopolitics. "Wars in Europe and the Middle East have rendered the Middle East Gulf, Red Sea and Black Sea unsafe for shipping, not that shipping is much deterred," the firm noted in a new report.

"The present boom is universal, transcending shipping sectors, as demand remains robust and ton-miles have been added as ships detour around war zones by taking longer routes home," Hartland said. "All shipping sectors have been unwitting beneficiaries of war."

The ton-mile effect is the commercial core of the story for shippers and charterers: longer diversions around conflict zones absorb effective capacity across sectors, tightening supply even when fleet growth continues. That keeps a floor under freight rates and charter hire — good news for owners, painful for cargo interests paying the freight.

How long can the cycle run?

Researchers at another broker, Affinity, argue the cycle still has room. "With this cycle now being well into at least its 5th or 6th year, it might seem the wrong time for newbuilding demand to be so robust," Affinity said in a recent report. "But this cycle is being driven by the geopolitical environment which show no signs of abating… There's still more life in this party yet."

The Affinity observation cuts against conventional cycle logic, which holds that ordering ships late in an upcycle risks overcapacity when the tide turns. But with diversions structurally adding ton-miles and war-risk conditions persisting across three key waterways, the demand side of the equation keeps outrunning fleet supply.

For shippers and forwarders, the implications are direct: crude and product transport costs remain the key inflation vector, container rates are holding more than three times year-ago levels, and only LNG shipping — where a wave of newbuild deliveries has outpaced cargo growth — shows sustained weakness.

With no signs of de-escalation in the conflicts redirecting global trade flows, brokers expect the earnings environment — and the rate pressure on cargo owners — to persist into the ordering seasons ahead.