Euronav has pushed back the arrival of two VLCC newbuildings it took as resales from Metrostar.
New York-listed Euronav says the pair will now be rolled out by Hyundai Heavy Industries in January 2017
The deferral of the ships, previously for delivery in October and November of 2016, will also shift $97m in payments into next year.
Hugo De Stoop, chief financial officer of the shipowner, said: “Euronav is pleased to have come to this agreement with HHI. It is, in fact, hard to understand why anyone would think of taking delivery of a ship in the last two to three months of the year given the importance that the vintage year has on the value of any ship.
"It makes sense for any shipowner to do this, and would assist in smoothing out the world order book going forward.
"Euronav is pleased to capture two vessels with a 2017 vintage and further rejuvenate our wider VLCC fleet with two high specification vessels and, as they are resales, it is done without increasing the size of the world fleet.”
Euronav has 30 VLCCs on the water alongside 20 suezmaxes.
In addition to the VLCCs at HHI, it also has a pair of newly inked suezmax newbuidings at the same Korean yard, which were ordered again long term contracts with Valero.
