Diversified Eastern Pacific Shipping has deviated from its normal practice of ordering new ships by chartering two chemical tanker newbuildings from a Chinese leasing company.
The Idan Ofer-controlled company which has ordered over 100 newbuildings during the last three years, has bareboat chartered two 25,000-dwt chemical tanker newbuildings from AVIC International Leasing.
Officials at Eastern Pacific declined to comment on the charter deal when contacted.
Industry sources said China Merchants Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing will construct the newbuilding pair. The Chinese shipyard is said to be delivering the first vessel in end 2025 and the second ship in 2026.
The price for the chemical tankers is said to be around $40m each.
Sources said Eastern Pacific will place them in the Ace Quantum Chemical Tankers (AQCT) pool.
The pool is managed by Ace Tankers — a joint venture between Eastern Pacific Shipping and XT Shipping.
The charter rate for the tankers was not disclosed, but sources added that Eastern Pacific had fixed the duo for eight years.
Headquartered in the Netherlands with an office in Singapore, AQCT manages a fleet of over 40 chemical tankers including new buildings on order from shipyards in Japan.
The company’s website states that its fleet is comprised predominantly of modern stainless steel chemical tankers of 19,900-dwt size.
AQCT said its core trade lane is the transatlantic and it has two to three sailings a month from Northwest Europe to the US Gulf and US East Coast and is contract oriented.
AQCT states that it plans to expand to new trade lanes such as: Far East — Southeast Asia — AG — Mediterranean — Europe.
“We are positive that we will emulate the success in the Transatlantic Atlantic trade and will provide our customers the same service and flexibility they require,” said the pool.
Eastern Pacific has around 200 vessels in trading including 21 chemical tankers of between 19,000-dwt and 22,000-dwt.
The company has various types of tankers, bulk carriers, pure car/truck carriers, container vessels and gas ships on order in China, Japan and South Korea.
After taking delivery of all the newbuildings by the end of 2028, its fleet is set to grow beyond 300 units.
