Greece’s Benelux Overseas is diversifying its LPG fleet with a $140m order in South Korea that will see it move into the midsize gas carrier segment.
The Kostas Angelou-controlled company has inked an order for two 40,000-cbm newbuildings at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD), shipbuilding industry sources said.
They said the order includes an option for an additional vessel.
Athens-based Benelux is said to be paying $46.7m per ship, which will run on conventional fuels rather than LPG. Delivery of the two firm vessels is scheduled for the first half of 2023.
Officials at HMD declined to comment on the order, citing contract confidentiality, while an executive at Benelux did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The order is the second shipbuilding contract that Benelux has placed with HMD.
Seven months ago, it contracted the Ulsan-based shipyard to build two 50,000-dwt MR product tankers at a reported price of $36m apiece. It is scheduled to take delivery of the scrubber-fitted ships in August and November of this year. Benelux is said to have chartered out the duo to Vitol for three years.
The MRs will become the company's only product tankers.
The order marked Benelux's return to the shipbuilding market after staying away for more than a decade. Before that, its last order was in 2008, when it signed up for three 9,000-cbm ethylene carriers at STX Offshore & Shipbuilding in South Korea.
Last month, interests associated with Angelou were linked to an order for two 90,000-cbm dual-fuel VLGC newbuildings on the back of 10-year time-charter contracts with Vitol at Hyundai Heavy Industries.
At the time, Benelux denied any involvement in the deal, claiming it had not been in touch with the shipbuilder — and sources have now said that the deal was not finalised.
Brokers said Angelou had been pursuing a fleet renewal in the LPG segment for some time. As part of that effort, the company recently sold the 74,332-cbm VLGC Gas Beauty I (built 1982) to an unknown Vietnamese buyer.
Benelux started its activities in Dubai in 1997. The group is made up of two separate gas carrier and product tanker companies: Benelux Overseas Inc in Athens and Benelux Overseas DMCC in Dubai.
Together, the group controls 12 LPG and ethylene carriers. That includes four VLGCs, with the rest ranging in size from 9,000 cbm to 15,000 cbm.
