Saudi Arabia’s national shipping arm Bahri has fixed at least 18 VLCCs on subjects as it pledged to pump more crude into the coronavirus-weakened market as its price war with Russia escalates.

The market raid caused a surge in charter rates for spot-trading VLCCs with levels rising from WS 70 to WS 105 in 10 hours, brokers said.

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Charter rates for spot VLCCs were still rising on Wednesday as western markets fired up.