Greece’s Chemnav Shipmanagement is said to have made a surprise order for tanker newbuildings — after a 17-year hiatus in the shipbuilding market.
The Paul Coronis-led company, which has been expanding its fleet with secondhand vessels, is now understood to be tapping a South Korean shipyard for MR product tankers.
Chemnav has struck a deal with K Shipbuilding, formerly STX STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, for two 50,000-dwt vessels.
Shipbuilding sources familiar with the deal said Chemnav is paying about $47m each for the scrubber-fitted ships, which are slated for delivery in the first half of 2025.
Officials at K Shipbuilding declined to disclose the yard’s newbuilding activities citing contract confidentiality.
Chemnav was not available for comment at the time of writing but the company’s website states that it has two MR tanker newbuildings to be delivered in early 2025 from an unnamed shipyard.
Chemnav was established in 2006 and is a sister company to PrimeBulk Shipmanagement.
According to VesselsValue, the last time Chemnav ordered newbuildings was 17 years ago when it contracted 13,000-dwt chemical tankers at Sekwang Heavy Industries.
The online database shows Chemnav has been active in the secondhand tanker market. It acquired 11 vessels between 2020 and March this year: three handysize and two handymax product tankers, two LR1s, one LR2, one aframax crude carrier and two suezmax tankers.
Its latest deal was conducted in March when it acquired the New Century-built 73,766-dwt Nordic C (ex-Nordic Geneva, built 2009) from Ernst Jacob of Germany.
On sales, Vessels Value shows the company sold three tankers last year — one 13,000-dwt chemical, one LR2 and one suezmax.
The online database lists Chemnav with a fleet of eight tankers in trading, but the Greek company’s website states that it is managing 13.
Shipbuilding sources said Chemnav’s newbuildings contract was the second deal that K Shipbuilding has inked this month.
A deal with Greek owner Nicholas Notias’ SteelShips was the other. The Piraeus and New York-based shipping outfit ordered MR tankers to be delivered in the first half of 2025. The newbuildings were reported to cost about $46.3m each.
Jinhae-based K Shipbuilding is a medium-sized shipyard that specialises in MR tankers.
The yard contracted 14 newbuildings last year and delivered 12 ships. It has set a target for 18 newbuilding contracts in 2023.
