Greece’s Evalend Shipping has added four more 75,000-dwt product tanker newbuildings to its orderbook.
The shipowner has returned to Yangzijiang Shipbuilding for the conventional-fuelled LR1 tankers, bringing the order tally for the ship type there to 10.
The company’s earlier six newbuildings in the series were ordered last year.
Evalend is said to have inked the order for the quartet some time ago, but the deal was never reported.
The newbuilding price for the latest tankers is not disclosed, but Evalend is believed to be paying slightly more for them than its earlier six ships, which were reported to cost slightly more than $50m each.
One shipbuilding broker thinks Evalend is likely to be paying between $53m and $55m apiece for its latest product tanker newbuildings.
Officials at Yangzijiang declined to confirm the Evalend contract when contacted by TradeWinds. Evalend was not available for comment at the time of writing.
Shipbuilding players tracking Yangzijiang’s orderbook said the yard is scheduled to deliver Evalend’s No 1 and No 2 LR1 newbuildings during the second half of 2025 and the remaining eight tankers between 2026 and 2027.
Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network shows the orderbook for LR1s stands at 45.
Yangzijiang leads the order table with 22 newbuildings, followed by South Korea’s K Shipbuilding with eight and China’s New Times Shipbuilding with six.
Greek owners have dominated half the LR1 tanker orderbook, accounting for half of the 22 newbuildings.
Companies that have ordered the product carriers include Dynacom Tankers, Metrostar Management, Performance Shipping and Taskos Group.
Banchero Costa global head of research Ralph Leszczynski said the LR1 orderbook is way below replacement levels.
He said about 60% of the LR1 fleet is older than 15 years, while the orderbook for the next four years is equivalent to just 8% of the trading fleet.
Besides the LR1 tankers on order at Yangzijiang, Kriton Lendoudis-led Evalend also has six conventionally fuelled MR tankers and three open-hatch handysize bulk carriers at Yangzijiang. They were booked at the end of 2022 and last year.
The Greek shipowning company also has two suezmax tankers, six LNG carriers and nine VLGC carriers on order at Hyundai yards.
