Middle East supertanker rates are advancing as Chinese traders return from vacation and bolster demand for vessels, shipbrokers said.

Hire costs on the industry benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan route climbed 4.1 percent to 43.25 Worldscale points today, extending yesterday’s 10 percent jump, according to the London- based Baltic Exchange. Returns from the voyage after fuel costs advanced 13 percent to $19,664 a day.

Rates are rising because of “the return of Chinese traders to the market” after the National Day holidays, Erik Folkeson Jensen, an analyst at shipbroker Lorentzen & Stemoco AS, said by phone. Oil companies hired six supertankers for eastern destinations yesterday, all for shipments to Asia, and there are “more cargoes being released to the market,” he said.

Tanker owners need stronger demand to boost rates that have plunged below what they need to pay crew, insurance, repairs and other daily running costs for consignments from the Middle East. Frontline Ltd., the world’s biggest supertanker company, rose 16 percent to 151 kroner ($26.85) this month in Oslo trading.

Increased bookings this week by Chinese oil companies created “momentum” that “propelled the market up,” London- based EA Gibson Shipbrokers Ltd. said in a report.

Freight derivatives betting on the Baltic Exchange’s average price for the Saudi Arabia-Japan route in November advanced, trading at 49 Worldscale points at 11:44 a.m. London time, according to Ben Goggin, a broker of the contracts at SSY Futures Ltd. (Bloomberg)