About a month after signing a letter of intent to build 10 kamsarmaxes at Hengli Heavy Industry (Hengli HI), Greece’s Procopiou family has finally sealed the deal.
According to market sources, contracts were signed on Tuesday. The Chinese yard confirmed the signing in a statement early on Wednesday.
TradeWinds broke news about the brewing deal on 20 June.
According to the information available then from sources, the advanced talks were for 10 wide-beam vessels with a capacity of 82,000 dwt each at about $35m per ship, due for delivery between 2025 and 2027.
The newbuildings will join the fleet of Sea Traders — the Procopiou group’s bulker arm.
The kamsarmaxes have been designed and developed by the Shanghai Shipbuilding Research & Design Institute.
As TradeWinds reported at the time, Dynacom Tankers Management is also in talks for a separate batch of eight, slightly more expensive 85,000-dwt kamsarmaxes at CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding.
Talks at Huangpu Wenchong are understood to be still ongoing.
North of 100 newbuildings
George Procopiou and his four daughters, who all have equal stakes in the business, are avowed fans of Chinese shipyards and have been on a newbuilding binge lately that includes at least 10 tankers at DSIC Shanhaiguan Shipbuilding Industry.
Procopiou’s large order provides further evidence that shipowners are getting tired of waiting for more clarity on the environmental front before renewing their fleets.
Greek owners alone are known, or believed, to have ordered more than 100 tanker and bulker newbuildings so far this year. Despite this bout of deal-making, however, orderbooks for both types of vessels remain well below historical averages as a share of the active fleet.
Hengli HI — a reborn business formerly known as STX Dalian Shipbuilding — has benefited from Greek owners’ appetite to expand outside its local client base.
Last month, the yard signed its first contract with a non-Chinese company, Laskaridis Maritime.
Since it became fully operational in January, “shipbuilding orders have been pouring in”, the yard said in its statement on Wednesday.
Procopiou’s order, in particular, represents the largest contract ever for the yard and confirms it has won “recognition of the world’s mainstream shipowners”, Hengli HI added.
George Economou, another major Greek shipowner, is also said to have entered discussions with Hengli HI for 10 kamsarmaxes with a capacity of 85,000 dwt.
