Tanker Newbuilding Orders on the Rise

Tanker demand has boomed in the newbuilding market over the past few days, as the global orderbook remains quite low. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Allied Shipbroking said that “ordering over the past few weeks was dominated by tanker newbuilding contracts, perhaps a symptom of the growing recognition of the relatively minimal deliveries expected over the next few years due to the rush seen in containership and gas carrier newbuilding projects that we have seen of late. The New Times Shipbuilding Suezmaxes ordered this week will be LNG dualfuelled, in what is a positive step for alternatively fuelled tankers, which have lagged behind the proportion of ordered boxships (and gas carriers) capable of running on greener fuels. Shandong Shipping’s very substantial order of 12 new Kamsarmax vessels represents one of the biggest single bulker orders of recent years in terms of absolute number of vessels. Recent significant orders also came from COSCO Shipping for 10 similarly sized, but substantially more expensive flexible woodchip carriers, in March and Bocimar’s 10 Cape order back in November. All of these orders were placed at Chinese yards reflecting their dominance right now in the dry bulk newbuilding market. Over 80% of vessels added to the orderbook this year will be built at Chinese shipyards”, Allied said.

In a separate report, shipbroker Banchero Costa added that the past week was “another busy one for the newbuilding market. The Norvegian Thor Dahl committed to the Indian Cochin Shipyard 2 + 2 x 5,000 dwt minibulkes. The vessels are hydrogen dual fuel for zero emission carbon output and the price reported is $30.45 mln each, deliveries starting 2nd trimester 2025. The Japanese shipyard Saiki was awarded 1 x 40,000 dwt Handymax that will be delivered to undisclosed buyers in the 1st trimester 2025. Belgian Euronav NV has awarded South Korean DH Shipbuilding an order of 2 x 157,300 dwt Suezmax at a price of $80 mln apiece, deliveries 09/2025 and 12/2025, with a total of four ships now committed from this buyer.

New Times Shipyard was awarded by 2 different Buyers for a total of 8 + 8 x 158.000 dwt Suezmaxes. Both orders have been placed (but not formally confirmed yet) by the Greek Capital Maritime & Trading Corporation and the Greek Maran Tankers at a price of $87 mln apiece, the vessels will be dual fuel propulsion and deliveries are spread from 06/2026 to 12/2027. Seatankers Management has awarded the Chinese yard Shanghai Waigaoqiao of an order of 2 x 150,000 dwt scrubber fitted Suezmaxes for $73 mln apiece, deliveries by mid and end of 2025. The South Korean yard Hyundai Mipo has received an order of 2 x 49.999 dwt Medium Range from UAE buyers Global Feeder Shipping at a price of $46.4 mln each, deliveries 02/2025. The Singapore Marex Maritime has committed to an undisclosed Japanese shipyard an order of 2 x 12,500 dwt fully STST chemical carriers with long-term charter with purchase option to Danish UniTankers. One large contract was signed in the LPG sector: the Singaporean Eastern Pacific Shipping has awarded the Chinese Jiangnan Shipyard 4 x 93,000 cbm priced $100 mln each with deliveries starting from 06/2026 to 12/2027”, the shipbroker said.

Meanwhile, in the S&P market, Allied commented that “the consecutive periods of holidays due to the Catholic and Orthodox Easter in the West, led to a backlog of sales, with this week effectively capturing a larger number of older transactions. In the dry bulk market, transactions were on normal levels, despite the brief pause in trading activity. Last week’s protagonist were the Supramax vessels, with an en-bloc sale increasing their share in the total number of ships sold. For the tanker market, the fervent pace of sales resumed, with product tankers always dominating the secondhand sales playground. Last week saw a major en-bloc sale in the MR segment, but appetite was evenly spread across the board, with increased transactions also in the VLCCs and Suezmaxes”.

Banchero Costa added that it was “an interesting week in the dry market, starting with a modern, eco Tess82, the VALIANT SPRING 82,000 dwt 2015 Tsuneishi Zhoushan (BWTS fitted), which was reported sold to Greek Buyers at $ 28.2 mln. The Panamax NAVIOS ANTHOS 75,000 dwt 2004 Sanoyas (BWTS fitted) seems to be sold at $11.25 mln, while the YING HAO 03 76,000 dwt 2012 Hudong-Zhonghua (BWTS fitted) was reported sold at rgn $18 mln. A lot of activity in the Supramax segment: the PAN BEGONIA 57,000 dwt 2009 STX Dalian (BWTS fitted) seems sold to Indonesian Buyers, while no Buyers emerged so far for the SANIA 57,000 dwt 2010 Qingshan, sold at $14 mln. Indonesian interests were reported behind the purchase of the CORAL BREEZE 56,000 dwt 2009 Mitsui (BWTS fitted) at $16.8 mln. Two Handysize were reported sold: the LADY LAURA 32,000 dwt 2008 Hakodate at $11.8 mln and the NORD SETOUCHI 28,000 dwt 2010 Imabari 11.3 (BWTS fitted) to Indonesian buyers. The tanker secondhand market kept recording strong values.

Another old VLCC changes hands: PRINCESS MARY 306,000 dwt 2004 blt Mitsubishi was reported sold to Chinese buyers at $51 mln. The Aframax market recorded a major sale: it was rumored that Greek shipowner Capital Ship Management sold the ARISTOKLIS 113,000 dwt 2017 blt Daehan (BWTS and scrubber fitted, Ice class 1C) at a very significant $68.5 mln. Inthe MR sector, KIRIBORA 50,000 dwt 2013 blt was sold at $33.5 mln to British shipowner Union Maritime”, the shipbroker concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide