Washington and Beijing have slapped steep import tariffs on hundreds of goods in the past months. And although U.S. crude oil exports to China, which only started in 2016, have not yet been included, Chinese oil importers have shied away from new orders recently.

"We are one of the major carriers for crude oil from the U.S. to China. Before (the trade war) we had a nice business, but now it's totally stopped," Xie Chunlin, the president of CMES said on the sidelines of the Global Maritime Forum's Annual Summit in Hong Kong.

(Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree; Writing by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

By Anne Marie Roantree