South Korea’s HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering has announced that an unnamed African company has ordered four product tankers for delivery by June 2026.
The quartet will be built by its Ulsan-based HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard.
HD KSOE said the value of the full contract is KRW 266.7bn ($193.6m), or about $48.3m per ship.
Based on the stated price, one shipbroker believes the contract is for 37,000-dwt MR1 tankers.
These would be the first MR1 vessel orders secured by HMD this year.
Algoma Central Corp was the last company to have ordered this ship type. Last summer, it ordered two high-spec newbuildings at $48m each for delivery by March 2025.
Algoma’s newbuildings are the only MR1 tankers on HMD’s orderbook.
Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network shows that the yard has 118 ships on its orderbook: 48 MR2 tankers, ro-ros, feeder container ships, pure car/truck carriers, midsize gas carriers and four liquefied CO2 carriers.
HD KSOE said that so far this year it has contracted 116 newbuildings worth $12.35bn, achieving 91.5% of the annual order target of $13.5bn.
The tally includes eight LNG carriers, 52 product tankers, 36 LPG/ammonia carriers, one very large ethane carrier, six VLCCs and two PCTCs.
