A few months after taking delivery of a freshly built VLCC and signing for an LR2 newbuilding, Greek owner Nicholas Inglessis has returned to Japan to order suezmaxes.
His Athens-based Alberta Shipmanagement revealed on its website that it has booked a pair of 158,600-dwt tanker newbuildings at Nihon Shipyard.
Alberta disclosed no other information about the order than to say that the sister ships are due for delivery in April and May 2025.
TradeWinds understands that the deal was signed earlier in the year and has only surfaced now.
Both suezmaxes are to be equipped with scrubbers. They will run on conventional marine fuel but preparations are underway to introduce dual-fuel optionality.
It is not clear if Alberta commissioned the ships on the back of pre-arranged employment.
In any case, the two suezmaxes add variety to an already well-diversified fleet. The company currently manages 11 tankers and seven bulkers — from MR2 tankers to VLCCs and from boxhold handysizes to capesizes.
Inglessis also likes variety in his newbuilding programme.
Alongside the two suezmaxes at Nihon and the LR2 at Sumitomo, Alberta has one 42,000-dwt boxhold handymax bulker under construction at Oshima Shipbuilding, due for delivery in January 2025.
Alberta’s choice of Nihon has some interesting aspects as well.
A joint venture between Imabari Shipbuilding and Japan Marine United, Nihon opened an outpost in Athens last year with the express purpose of attracting Greek clients.
The Inglessis family has been one early client.
Samos Steamship, the traditional Inglessis family company from which Nicholas Inglessis split his interests to set up Alberta about four years ago, has already commissioned vessels at the yard.
Samos has two capesizes under construction there — the 181,000-dwt Proteus (built 2023), which is due for delivery by the end of September, as well as sister ship Prometheus, due for delivery next year.
Samos’ bulker newbuildings probably go hand in hand with the offloading of older tonnage.
US brokers reported on 7 July that the company had agreed to sell the 203,300-dwt newcastlemax Stamatis (built 2004), its oldest bulker, to Far Eastern buyers for a little more than $18m.
Samos managers did not respond to a request for comment.
Another Greek client that Nihon managed to attract is Globus Maritime. The US-listed arm of the Feidakis family picked the Japanese yard for the first order in its 17-year history — a 64,000-dwt ultramax bulker due for delivery in the first half of 2024.
