Minerva Marine is taking preliminary steps to order its first tanker newbuilding since 2019 and its first ever at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
According to market sources, the Andreas Martinos-led owner signed a letter of intent for a single LR2 at the Singapore-listed Chinese yard.
If firmed up, the product tanker will run on conventional marine fuel and is slated for 2026 delivery.
The price for the envisaged vessel is not known. Yangzijiang, however, has been contracting LR2s for prices in the low $60m region lately.
That applies to a pair of 114,000-dwt product tankers signed at the yard by Eyal Ofer-led Zodiac Maritime, which are due for delivery in the third quarter of 2025.
Union Maritime, another UK-based company, is said to have ordered two such ships at the yard.
Shipping players have been flocking to Yangzijiang recently, helping it meet 40% of its 2023 orderbook before the first four months of the year were over.
It has continued scooping up business since, including other ship types.
As TradeWinds reported earlier on Thursday, Yangzijiang is poised to win a $1.4bn contract for methanol-fuelled container ships from AP Moller-Maersk.
Greeks have not been absent from that newbuilding spate.
As TradeWinds reported in April, serial newbuilding and secondhand player Metrostar Management ordered a pair of 75,000-dwt tankers at Yangzijiang.
Theodore Angelopoulos-led Metrostar has since confirmed the order, featuring the two LR1s on its website as Hull No YZJ2023-1523 and Hull No YZJ2023-1524.
Fast boat to China
There has been a general dash for aframax product carrier newbuildings at Chinese shipyards.
Other companies to have ordered such vessels there include Dynacom Tankers, Eastern Pacific Shipping, Euronav, John Fredriksen’s Seatankers, Maran Tankers and Capital Maritime.
Placing a tanker order in China, however, has been extremely rare for Minerva.
According to VesselsValue, the only time it has done so was 12 years ago, when it booked a VLCC at Jiangnan Shipyard — the 318,500-dwt Zourva (built 2014), which is still trading in the Greek company’s fleet.
For its last tanker order in 2019, a pair of LR2s, Minerva picked DS Shipbuilding, formerly known as Daehan. It took delivery two years later and they are trading as the 115,500-dwt Minerva Astra and Minerva Alexandra (both built 2021).
Minerva has reserved most of its activity for LNG carriers since.
In 2021 and 2022, its Minerva Gas arm took delivery of five 174,000-cbm newbuildings from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries.
In November last year, Martinos ordered two more such vessels at Samsung. They are due for delivery in 2026, backed up by contracts with ExxonMobil.
The Minerva Gas website features them as Hull No SN2652 and Hull No SN2653.
