A newcomer is plotting a huge investment in bulkers at a time when China’s big shipowners are making a play on the newbuilding front.
Market sources say the Beijing-headquartered China Energy Shipping plans to order up to 30 newbuildings.
Parent China Energy Investment Group is understood to have given a green light to the project.
China Energy Shipping has begun contacting shipyards with a tender for two methanol-ready 73,800-dwt panamaxes, TradeWinds understands.
The shipowner is believed to be targeting a June 2026 delivery slot.
Details of the remaining 28 ships are not yet clear.
TradeWinds was told that some of them will be oceangoing ships and others will be used to move coal in the Chinese domestic trade.
Last month, TradeWinds revealed that Chinese state-owned heavyweight Cosco was working on a vast order for 120 vessels worth more than $4.5bn.
The talk of Posidonia
Sources suggested that it is considering 20 newcastlemax bulkers, 40 kamsarmax bulkers and 30 pulp carriers/multipurpose ships of 80,000 dwt.
However, it was known that the Cosco order was the tip of the iceberg. The talk of other big Chinese shipowners working on a swathe of newbuildings was a hot topic at Posidonia this year.
China Energy Shipping is a relatively new outfit, set up in March 2023 with a registered capital of CNY 1bn ($138m).
In May, it acquired 10 resale ultramax bulker newbuildings and one secondhand supramax from CITIC Financial Leasing (CITIC FL) en bloc for an unspecified sum.
The 65,000-dwt resales are being built at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co subsidiary Shanhaiguan Shipbuilding Industry.
CITIC FL ordered the 10 Sdari-designed ultramaxes in 2022 for a reported price of about $31.5m each.
VesselsValue shows Shanhaiguan has delivered two of the vessels — the 64,900-dwt Xin Zhi Yuan 10 (built 2023) and Xin Zhi Yuan 11 (built 2024).
It is scheduled to deliver four of the remaining newbuildings this year and four in 2025.
China Energy Shipping’s secondhand acquisition from CITIC FL is the Jiangsu Hantong-built 57,000-dwt Xin Zhi Yuan 1 (built 2010), which has a market value of $8.88m, according to VesselsValue.
China Energy Shipping holds a major stake in Shenhua Zhonghai Shipping, also known as Guoneng Yuanhai, which it co-owns with the former China Shipping Group — now merged with Cosco Shipping.
The joint venture will soon take delivery of one methanol dual-fuel 10,850-dwt bulker from domestic shipyard Hubei Hechuang Heavy Industry. To be named Guoneng Changjiang 11, it was recently launched and will be China’s first coastal methanol dual-fuel bulker. It is classed by the China Classification Society.
China Energy has a fleet of 58 vessels of 3.24m dwt, most of which are used for domestic trade.
