Eastern Pacific Shipping has stacked up its product tanker orderbook with dual-fuel LR2 vessels.
The Singapore-based company, which is said to have set its sights on controlling a “50-vessel product fleet”, has four LR2 and 16 MR tankers on the water.
Eastern Pacific has commissioned China’s Xiamen Shipbuilding to build four 113,600-dwt product carriers to be delivered in 2028.
Sources following the shipowner said it signed the contract several weeks ago but the deal was never reported.
The price has not yet emerged, but one broker suggested that a dual-fuel newbuilding would cost between $73m and $75m in today’s market.
The deal brings to 16 the number of LNG dual-fuel LR2 vessels that Eastern Pacific has on order: state-owned Guangzhou Shipyard International is building eight, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) is constructing three and Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard one.
The Idan Ofer-owned company was reported to be paying a premium price of about $83m per ship for four of Guangzhou Shipyard’s newbuildings because of their early delivery dates: one is scheduled to be delivered in November 2026, two in the first quarter of 2027 and one in early 2028.
Its four other LR2s at the yard, ordered between June 2023 and early this year at $75m apiece, are due to roll out of the dry dock in 2026 and 2027.
The tankers at SWS and Zhoushan Changhong were reported to have cost between $61m and $63m each. They will be fitted with scrubbers and run on conventional marine fuel.
In the MR segment, the shipowner has 12 newbuildings on order — six at New Times Shipbuilding, four at Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding and two at HD Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding, all due for delivery between 2025 and 2027.
It holds four options at Fujian Mawei.
A diversified shipping company, Eastern Pacific has close to 190 trading vessels.
It has one of the world’s largest newbuilding programmes, with more than 100 vessels worth in excess of $8bn on order, including container ships, pure car/truck carriers, very large ammonia carriers, suezmax tankers, newcastlemax bulkers and LNG carriers.
Its decarbonisation efforts date back to 2018, when it signed one of the world’s first orders for an LNG dual-fuel boxship.
Eastern Pacific declined to comment on its newbuilding activities when contacted by TradeWinds.
