One week after booking four VLCC newbuildings at its shipyard, China’s Hengli Group seems to be flipping two vessels as resales to a major Greek owner.
According to several broking and shipbuilding sources in Europe and China, Athens-based Evalend Shipping is in close talks to acquire a scrubber-fitted, 306,000-dwt pair that will be delivered by Hengli Heavy Industries in 2026.
The exact price at which the transaction is being discussed is not immediately clear. Sources said the two vessels will cost Greek owner Kriton Lendoudis between $125m and $127m each.
Sources told TradeWinds the price was firm for a shipyard with a limited record for building VLCCs and with questions about a tight delivery schedule.
However, VLCC newbuilding slots elsewhere in the market are only available for delivery in 2028.
Any point in the reported price range will be a considerable appreciation from the $122m that George Procopiou of Dynacom Tankers Management paid in April in another VLCC resale deal at the same yard.
Procopiou’s two 306,000-dwt crude carriers — under construction as Hull Nos T300-1 and T300-2 — are due for delivery in March and December 2025.
The appreciation underlines the optimism prevalent among analysts for a stronger 2025 for VLCCs, as the International Energy Agency estimates that extra oil production in the western hemisphere will increase demand for tankers.
This probably encouraged Evalend to snap up some of the VLCCs the Hengli Group is speculatively building — perhaps in the hope of eventually flipping the ships itself.
Other private shipowners are understood to have had a look at the resales. Potential risk around the delivery schedule is a key question mark for them.
Lendoudis, who has been extremely busy on the newbuilding and sale-and-purchase front in recent years, probably carried out just such a transaction in the past.
S&P Global data suggests that Evalend bought two VLCC resales from the BW Group in 2018.
They were then operated by Middle Eastern players AISSOT and VS Tankers, before being sold in December 2023 to Bahri at $114m each.
Close connections
The two VLCCs that Evalend is probably buying now from Hengli Group form part of the Chinese yard’s revival.
TradeWinds reported on 18 September how Hengli Heavy booked four 306,000-dwt tanker newbuildings with its parent, the Hengli Group, due for delivery in 2026 and 2027.
Clarksons data suggests that this quartet will come on top of four other VLCCs that Hengli Group has already commissioned at its own yard: the two ordered in September 2023 and resold to Procopiou in April; as well as a further two, Hull Nos T300-3 and T300-4, ordered in April and due for delivery in September and December 2026.
TradeWinds has also already reported that Hengli Group might decide to resell more of its VLCC newbuildings as resales.
Contracting VLCCs on its own account represents a small risk for Hengli Group, as the privately owned group is an oil refiner and petrochemical manufacturer.
The group has close ties with oil giant Saudi Aramco, which plans to acquire a 10% stake in subsidiary Hengli Petrochemical. The deal should be followed by long-term crude supply agreements.
Lucy Hine and Andy Pierce contributed to this article
