Greek shipowner George Procopiou has emerged with four times as many LR1 tankers on order in China as previously thought.
His Dynacom Tankers Management, which was reported to have ended its 17-year LR1 order drought last year by contracting two newbuildings at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, also has six of the ship type on order at New Times Shipbuilding.
Shipbuilding sources tracking Dynacom said it commissioned New Times to build the six 75,000-dwt vessels several months ago, but the deal went unreported.
“Dynacom signed these six newbuildings before it inked the Yangzijiang tankers,” said one source.
Like the Yangzijiang pair, the New Times carriers will be powered by conventional fuels and equipped with scrubbers, for scheduled delivery in 2026 and 2027.
The cost has not been disclosed. However, brokers believe Dynacom is paying about $53m per vessel.
New Times officials declined to comment on the deal, citing contract confidentiality.
The Jiangsu-based yard is privately owned and is known for building tankers and bulk carriers. It has an orderbook of close to 100 newbuildings, ranging from VLCCs to newcastlemax bulkers and large container ships.
Dynacom’s New Times order lifts its tally of tanker newbuildings at Chinese yards in 2023 to 30 vessels, with a combined value of more than $2bn. All will be conventionally fuelled.
Gradual transition
Procopiou believes in a gradual transition towards net zero and advocates for efficient conventionally fuelled ships in lieu of more promising but still experimental technologies.
Included in the spree are 14 aframaxes and two 307,000-dwt VLCCs at DSIC Shanhaiguan Shipbuilding Industry Co; and two 115,000-dwt LR2s and four 320,000-dwt VLCCs at New Times.
Procopiou’s bulker company, Sea Traders, has 22 kamsarmax newbuildings worth $786m on order at China’s CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding, Hengli Heavy Industry (the former STX Dalian Shipbuilding) and Qingdao Yangfan Shipbuilding, also known as Qingdao Shipyard.
Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network lists Dynacom as owning 10 LR1s built between 2008 and 2009.
