Turkey’s Yasa Shipping is said to be switching its focus to tanker newbuildings, having spent the past two years expanding its dry bulk fleet with new bulk carriers.
Shipbuilding sources said Yasa has struck a deal with Singapore-listed Yangzijiang Shipbuilding for four MR tankers to be delivered in 2026.
The crush for product tankers comes with the current orderbook for MRs at 6.4% of the trading fleet, according to Banchero Costa, while 10% of the fleet is over 20 years old, indicating the fleet is ripe for replacement.
Yasa has traditionally contracted South Korean shipbuilders such as Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and DH Shipbuilding (ex-Daehan Shipbuilding) to build tankers.
Easy access to Chinese loans, competitive Chinese newbuilding prices and the early delivery slots offered by Yangzijiang attracted Yasa, the source added.
It was not disclosed if Yasa is tapping Chinese funds to finance the order.
Officials at Yangzijiang declined to comment on the shipyard’s newbuilding activities, citing contract confidentiality, while Yasa did not respond to emails seeking confirmation.
TradeWinds has learned that Yasa is paying slightly more than $41m each for the conventional marine fuel-powered tankers. The 50,000-dwt product carrier design was developed by Econovo Marine Engineering — an in-house design company of Yangzijiang.
Shipbuilding sources said the quartet booked at Yangzijiang is just the “beginning” of the company’s investment in tankers.
“More [tanker newbuildings] to come,” said one shipbuilding source. “Yasa is in contact with some other shipyards in China for larger tankers.”
According to Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network (SIN), Yasa has a fleet of 52 vessels — 14 tankers and 38 bulk carriers.
Its tanker fleet consists of two VLCCs, one suezmax, three aframax tankers and eight MRs.
The company made its debut in the VLCC segment in March 2021, when it acquired the 318,300-dwt Yasa Southern Cross (ex-Qi Lian San, built 2012) for about $44m.
The crude oil carrier was sold as part of the liquidation of the former Xihe Holdings fleet. VesselsValue puts its current value at $65.53m.
At the end of last year, the company added one more VLCC to its fleet. It bought the Hyundai-built, 314,000-dwt Yasa Scorpion (ex-C.Passion, built 2013) from SK Shipping for $62m. The current value of the ship is $75.52m.
In the company’s dry bulk fleet, Yasa operates bulk carriers ranging in size from handysizes up to newcastlemaxes. It has five open-hatch, 40,500-dwt bulker newbuildings on order at Jiangmen Nanyang Ship Engineering and four 63,600-dwt ultramaxes at Cosco Heavy Industry Zhoushan Shipyard. It is scheduled to take delivery of the newbuildings in 2024 and 2025.
According to Clarksons’ SIN, 57 MR tanker newbuildings have been ordered this year, with the total on-order tally for the ship type standing at 126.
A source following Yangzijiang said the Chinese yard has inked a total of 20 MR tanker newbuildings in recent months with shipping companies Evalend Shipping, Jaldhi Overseas and Yangzijiang Shipping.
