GEFO Shipping Group of Germany has ordered up to four stainless steel chemical tankers in China.
The two 7,900-dwt ice-class 1A tankers and two optional vessels, to be built at Nantong Xiangyu Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, are due for delivery in late 2026 and 2027 and are designed for trading in the North and Baltic seas.
They will be prepared for fuel-saving Flettner rotors and possible methanol engine retrofits.
In February, GEFO ordered 10 chemical tankers of 3,850 dwt at Nantong Xiangyu for delivery between 2026 and 2028.
Two years before that, it ordered 26 vessels in Turkey, China, the Netherlands and Romania.
Most of those vessels have been delivered and GEFO claims to own and operate one of the youngest fleets in the sector.
The average age of its deepsea fleet is seven years and 13 years for its inland fleet.
The family-owned Hamburg company was founded in 1961 and controls about 150 tankers, including 25 oceangoing vessels.
The fleet comprises chemical tankers, gas carriers and mineral oil tankers used on the Rhine River and in the Antwerp/Rotterdam/Amsterdam chemical triangle.
GEFO’s annual turnover is between €500m and €600m (about $540m to $650m).
Nantong Xiangyu was founded at the end of 2016 when an alliance of three companies — Xiamen Xiangyu, Nantong Tongbao Shipping and China Ocean Industry Group — took over the collapsed Nantong Mingde Heavy Industry through an online auction.
The shipyard focuses on building handysize tankers and bulkers up to kamsarmax size.
It has expanded capacity by renting slipways and a dry dock from Sainty Shipbuilding — formerly Sainty Marine — and is building ultramax bulkers there.
