Greece's Eastern Mediterranean Maritime (EastMed) has pencilled in an order for aframax product tankers at South Korea's Daehan Shipbuilding.
Newbuilding sources said the Thanassis Martinos-controlled company has signed a letter of intent for two 115,000-dwt LR2s. The deal does not include option vessels.
Available data suggests that these would be EastMed's first newbuildings at Daehan.
The Greek owner is said to be paying close to $60m each for the conventionally-fuelled tankers. But the “premium price” for the newbuildings also reflects their early delivery dates as the duo is slated for handover dates in May and July 2023.
Officials at Daehan declined to comment on EastMed's LR2 newbuildings, citing contract confidentiality. EastMed managers were not immediately available for comment.
One newbuilding broker said EastMed's tanker deal at Daehan sends a sign that owners are prepared to move again on tanker tonnage, despite the price rises seen at yards this year.
He said that up until now there has been a price gap on LR2 vessels of around $5m between what owners would pay at about $55m, and yard quotes of $60m.
"This is the strongest signal in the tanker market for six months," he said.
Moving in on MRs as well
Shipbuilding prices have continued to increase in the last four months on the back of rising material costs and limited berth slots.
EastMed is already known to be jumping on resales of smaller product tankers to secure newbuilding tonnage at early deliveries and position itself for an expected rebound in the tanker freight market.
TradeWinds has already reported how EastMed owner Martinos has snapped up six product tankers in such deals so far this year.
On 1 November, Athens-based brokers linked the company to two more 50,000-dwt vessels under construction at K Shipbuilding, originally ordered by Dong-A Tankers, at $37.8m apiece.
However, ship-management sources in Athens and Asia said EastMed is about to pounce on a different MR2 newbuilding under construction at the same yard instead, which is currently owned by Greek peer SteelShips.
EastMed already purchased one of SteelShips' two MR2s at K Shipbuilding, as TradeWinds reported last month.
Second-tier yards make headway
In other recent tanker newbuilding deals, energy and commodity trader Vitol ordered four conventional-fuelled aframax product tankers at Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding in June. The 115,000-dwt vessels, which are slated for delivery between the second half of 2023 and first half of 2024, were reported to have cost $56.5m each.
Both Daehan and Hyundai Vietnam are classified as "second-tier" yards in South Korea's shipbuilding industry. Their shipbuilding prices are usually 3% to 5% cheaper than the country's big three yards — Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.
Last month, Daehan made its debut in the containership market when domestic owner Pan Ocean signed up for two 1,000-teu feeder ships. The deal included options for two additional vessels.
The high shipbuilding price of containerships was cited as the reason Daehan was lured to expand into this ship type.
Pan Ocean's 1,000-teu boxships were reported to cost at least $22.5m each and are due for delivery from May 2023.
