Gas shipowner and trader Petredec has confirmed two options for 22,000-cbm handysize ethylene carriers worth around $50m each that it was holding at Jiangnan Shipyard in China.
The contracts were exercised by Petredec Holdings (Eastern) bringing the company's newbuildings on these units at the yard to four firm vessels.
These latter two newbuildings are due for delivery in May and September 2022.
The contract was signed at Marintec Shanghai this week during the ceremony for the merger of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC) and China Shipbuilding Industry Corp (CSIC) under the CSSC banner.
The first two sistership newbuildings are to be delivered during third quarter 2021.
They are to be named New Eclipse and Electra following a tradition of vessels being named after famous horses.
Clarksons acted as broker on the four newbuildings.
Petredec chief executive Giles Fearn said Petredec's relationship with Jiangnan dates back to 2007, during which time the company has ordered a total of 16 LPG/ethylene vessels.
"We are also very much looking forward to the imminent delivery of four scrubber-equipped 84,000 cbm VLGC’s, three of which are due in the first week of January and one in February 2020, which coincides perfectly with the implementation of the new IMO 2020 rules," Fearn added.
Petredec moves over 10 million tonnes of LPG annually on a fleet of over 60-owned and chartered vessels. In addition the company is developing wholesale, logistics & downstream businesses across Southern Africa.