Briese Schiffahrt of Germany has tripled its tally of multipurpose (MPP) vessels on order at China's Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering to six.

Shipbuilding sources said the Leer-based owner added four more 12,500-dwt newbuildings some time ago but the deal went unreported.

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A source familiar with the deal said Briese is scheduled to take delivery of the quartet in 2020.

Last June, TradeWinds reported that Briese acquired two similar vessels that were already under construction at Taizhou Sanfu. The newbuildings were part of a ­series of six vessels ­that Zeaborn ordered in 2014, but the Bremen-based shipping company cancelled the contracts because of delays. Briese will take delivery of the duo this year.

Briese was reported to have paid around $18.5m each for the vessels, which were designed by the Shanghai Mer­chant Ship Design Research Institute. The Eco Trader-class MPP ships will be equip­ped with two 250-tonne cranes.

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Besides the newbuildings at Taizhou Sanfu, Briese also has four 5,000-dwt Open Top Eco Generation-class MPP units under construction at Zhejiang Zengzhou Shipbuilding Co. According to VesselsValue, Briese is scheduled to take delivery of two vessels this year and another pair in 2020.

The newbuildings at Taizhou Sanfu and Zhejiang Zengzhou are part of Briese's fleet-renewal programmes. The company controls a fleet of around 130 vessels.