Chinese shipbuilder Zhejiang Shenzhou Shipbuilding has secured six orders for small coastal and bunker tankers from Singaporean and Thai shipowners.
Shipbuilding sources reported that Hai Soon Diesel & Trading, a Singaporean bunker tanker player, has ordered three 6,000-dwt vessels at the yard.
Thailand’s Nathalin Co has also ordered three 3,000-dwt coastal product tankers that will be operated by its Prima Marine subsidiary.
IHS Markit indicates that all six vessels will be delivered during the first quarter of next year.
Hai Soon is a new customer for Zhejiang Shenzhou, which is a prolific builder of small tankers, mostly of less than 10,000 dwt.
The Singaporean owner operates 15 bunker tankers via its Hai Soon Ship Management arm. These vessels are between 3,300 dwt and 8,700 dwt, have an average age of 13 years and operate in Singaporean and international waters.
Previous orders
However, Nathalin is no stranger to the Chinese shipbuilder.
The company has built four small product tankers at the yard, and has the 3,000-dwt tanker Sri Lamphu scheduled for delivery in November.
Nathalin’s large fleet of smaller tankers is mainly used to carry oil products from Thai refineries to small ports and communities on the countries mainland and numerous islands near its coastline.
Reputable industry databases indicate that Singapore’s Xihe Holdings, has three 13,500-dwt product tankers being built at the yard.
However, a Xihe spokeswomen told TradeWinds that the information in the databases is outdated as the contracts for these were never confirmed.
The trio, she explained, were optional vessels attached to an earlier seven-ship order.
The first seven were built and delivered, but Xihe did not exercise the option for the remaining three.
The company instead placed orders for three similar-sized vessels at Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding. One of the vessels, the Ocean Gar a, have been delivered while the remaining two, named Ocean Ray and Ocean Tuna, is still under construction.
This article has been updated to include comment from Xihe Holdings
