Greek shipowner Evalend Shipping has taken its tanker newbuilding drive past $1bn with a move into a new area of the product market.
It is understood to have contracted four tankers in South Korea in a deal worth more than $190m.
The contract would add to a $900m-plus project in which the company has ordered a raft of product and crude tankers since the end of 2022.
Shipbuilding sources said Evalend is behind the order for four product tankers announced by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) on Monday.
The shipyard said “an African” company ordered the vessels for delivery by June 2026.
The value of the contract was placed at KRW 266.7bn ($193.6m), or about $48.3m per ship.
HD KSOE did not disclose the size of the ships but said they would be built by its Ulsan-based HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard.
Brokers said the product carriers are 37,000 dwt, based on the stated price.
Officials at HMD and Evalend have been contacted for comment.
If Evalend is confirmed as the shipowner behind the order, the deal would mark its debut in the MR1 segment.
Banchero Costa data shows that more than half of the trading product tanker fleet is over 20 years old, while 6% of the ships in the water are less than five years old. The orderbook-to-trading ratio is 4.8%.
Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence lists Evalend with a fleet of 51 ships that includes five VLCCs, four chemical tankers of less than 20,000 dwt and six gas carriers. The majority of the fleet is bulk carriers.
The Kriton Lendoudis-led company is expanding and diversifying its fleet through newbuildings.
It is entering the suezmax tanker business with two conventionally fuelled newbuildings ordered at HD Samho Heavy Industry last year at a reported price of $84m each and due for delivery in February and May 2025.
Evalend is also making its debut in the MR2 and LR1 sectors through newbuildings at China’s Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, where it has ordered six 50,000-dwt and 10 aframax product tankers scheduled for delivery between 2025 and 2027.
Evalend also has six 174,000-cbm LNG carriers and nine VLGC/very large ammonia carriers on order at Hyundai yards and two open-hatch 40,000-dwt bulkers at Yangzijiang.
