US fuel exports hit record in March as Asia, Europe sought to replace Middle East supplies

US refined products exports hit a record high in March as the Iran war left Europe, Asia and Africa scrambling to fill supply shortfalls created by the near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has been disrupting shipping in the strait, through which oil and fuel exports flow that represent a fifth of global consumption. The loss of these supplies has forced production cuts at plants in those regions, causing price spikes and threatening an economic slowdown.

US exports of clean petroleum products, which include gasoline, naphtha, diesel and jet fuel, hit about 3.11 million barrels per day in March, up from about 2.5 million bpd in February, data from vessel-tracking service Kpler shows. That is the highest monthly level in Kpler records going back to 2017.

US fuel exports to Europe rose nearly 27% month-over-month to 414,000 bpd in March, while exports to Asia more than doubled to 224,000 bpd, the Kpler data shows. Exports to Africa surged 169% to 148,000 bpd.

“These flows are a reflection of the global supply tightness pulling barrels out of the US Gulf Coast export hub,” Kpler analyst Matt Smith says.

“The longer that Strait of Hormuz disruptions go on, the greater dislocations there are on a global basis, which will force new trade routes to open up,” he says.

US refiners last month shipped a record amount of fuel on routes rarely used before, such as from the US Gulf Coast to Australia, and even US markets that themselves are reliant on imports shipped fuel out to Europe and elsewhere.

For example, about 72,000 bpd of clean petroleum products were shipped from the US East Coast to Europe last month, the second-highest in Kpler records after a peak of 84,000 bpd in September 2024. The US East Coast typically imports diesel from Europe.