Dorian LPG, an owner and manager of VLGCs, unveiled on Saturday the first in a string of imminent fleet additions it expects to boost earnings.
The 86,000-cbm HLS Citrine (built 2023) has been delivered to the Dorian fleet and will serve with it on a long-term time charter, the company said in a LinkedIn post.
“We are proud to take delivery of our first dual-fuel LPG VLGC, boosting dual-fuel LPG capabilities in line with our ambition to reduce emissions,” it said.
According to Alex Hadjipateras, senior executive vice president of Dorian LPG (USA) LLC, the ship’s advantages do not end there.
“Furthermore, the vessel is a panamax design, enabling transits via the old Panama Canal locks, thereby reducing delays and costs compared to [neo-panamax] transits,” he told TradeWinds.
“This is consistent with our mission to provide safe, reliable, clean and trouble-free transportation.”
The company already has more than three years’ experience transiting the old Panama locks with another vessel it charters in, the 80,100-cbm Future Diamond (built 2020).
In its latest earnings release on 1 February, Dorian LPG said it exercised an option to extend the Future Diamond’s employment to the first quarter of 2025.
Rising delays in the Panama Canal have boosted freight rates for LPG ships in general, playing a big part in Dorian’s soaring profitability lately.
Panama Canal congestion is here to stay, Dorian management told analysts in the 1 February conference call, right after reporting record quarterly revenue for the last three months of 2022 and its highest quarterly profit in seven years.
Newbuildings pipeline
The company said at the time that it would grow its fleet by four additional VLGCs this year — all of them dual-fuel LPG vessels.
One of them is a 84,000-cbm newbuilding, which the company is known to have ordered in 2021 and which it will take delivery of next month from Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
As for the other three, Dorian said it would charter them in but did not reveal their identities.
The HLS Citrine, ordered and owned by Hyundai LNG Shipping, now becomes the first in this group to be made public.
The second is another newbuilding owned by Hyundai LNG Shipping, market sources said.
The HLS Citrine and its sistership, possibly the 86,000-cbm Blue Sapphire (built 2023), were initially chartered by E1 Corp — a major South Korean LPG importer — which then flipped them to Dorian.
The third ship that Dorian LPG will charter in is of about the same capacity and design as the other two, but is owned by different Asian interests.
According to the same market sources, Dorian LPG will charter in the three ships for more than five years, with some options for further extension.
They will be traded in the Helios LPG Pool, which Dorian operates jointly with Phoenix Tankers — a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines. The Dorian-owned newbuilding will trade in the Helios LPG pool as well.
Dorian LPG currently owns 19 VLGCs built between 2014 and 2016 as well as one built in 2007.
On top of its owned fleet, it charters in the HLS Citrine, the Future Diamond and the 83,300-cbm Astomos Venus (built 2016). The time charter of the Astomos Venus is due to expire in the third quarter of 2023.
