Busy Greek tanker ordering continued at a brisk pace this week, with news emerging about a deal for up to four suezmaxes at South Korea’s DH Shipbuilding.
Several market sources in Greece and the Far East said the order is by Greece’s Atlas Maritime for two firm and two optional 158,000-dwt units, priced at about $84m each.
The order represents a departure for Atlas principal Leon Patitsas, whose tanker activities had been so far focused on aframax crude carriers and LR2 product tankers.
The suezmaxes Atlas is ordering now will comply with the latest environmental and regulatory standards, being scrubber-fitted and dual-fuel-ready for either methanol or LNG propulsion.
Another plus is the early delivery dates of the two firm ships, the completion of which is scheduled for the second half of 2025 and early 2026.
Sources said this is due to the fact that the slots had been previously booked by a third party, which did not follow up on its own shipbuilding project.
DH Shipbuilding did not find it difficult to find a replacement for the slots.
Atlas has been a trusted partner of the yard. The firm suezmaxes are the 10th and 11th ships that it is booking since 2020 at the company previously known as Daehan Shipbuilding.
If the optional vessels are declared as well, the number will rise to 13.
Shipowners, particularly from Greece, have been busy ordering tankers lately, attracted by orderbooks that are rising but still low compared with long-term averages.
According to Clarksons, the newbuilding-to-active-fleet ratio in terms of tonnage stands at 5.9% in July. This is up from a historical low of 2.2% in October last year but still well below a five-year average of 7.6% and a 10-year average of 11.3%.
Tanker orders stagnated last year, amid owners’ uncertainty about future environmental standards and perceptions that market fundamentals for the business were poor.
However, pressure from ageing fleets and a benign market outlook in the wake of the war in Ukraine, which put energy security concerns at the forefront of policymakers’ minds, has encouraged several owners to start ordering again.
Greeks have been leading that trend. TradeWinds data shows Hellenic players signing up to about 50 firm tankers over the past four months.
Atlas has been ahead of the curve in that respect, ordering tankers even when almost nobody else did, at rock-bottom prices during the height of the Covid pandemic.
As TradeWinds reported, the company had flipped several of these LR2 newbuildings by the time they were delivered, at jaw-dropping profit margins.
Atlas, which has been ordering car carriers as well, has been teaming up with financial partners in its projects.
TradeWinds reported last month how Atlas, Denmark’s European Maritime Finance (EMF) and Concord Maritime concluded a profitable deal to sell an older aframax to India.
TradeWinds understands that EMF is a partner in the suezmax newbuildings as well.
Irene Ang contributed to this article
