The daily cost of chartering a supertanker to ship US crude oil to China eased at the end of last week after touching a record high in the previous session, according to data from the Baltic Exchange.
The freight rate, also known as TD22, slipped to $634,974 per day on Friday, marking the first decline since September 8.
It touched $637,675 on October 8, the highest daily rate recorded on this route since its inception, according to the exchange.
TD22 is the benchmark to hire a VLCC to ship two million barrels of US oil to China.
Record freight rates are putting US crude out of reach for Asian refiners, pushing them to seek alternatives from the Middle East and Latin America, according to multiple traders and shipbrokers who track those markets.
The cost of chartering a VLCC to carry two million barrels of US oil from the Gulf of Mexico to China in November hit $80 million last week.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)