Norway’s Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers (KNOT) has returned to China’s Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry Zhoushan Shipyard (Cosco Heavy Zhoushan) for its sixth shuttle tanker order there since 2012.
KNOT — a leading player in the shuttle tanker market — has contracted the yard to build one suezmax unit to be delivered in 2024.
A shipbuilding source familiar with the deal confirmed the order. The price of the 154,000-dwt ship was not disclosed. It is not known if KNOT has lined up employment for the vessel.
Of the six suezmax shuttle tankers that KNOT has ordered since 2012, four vessels have been delivered and a fifth — Hull No 786 — is slated for delivery over the next few months.
Hull No 786 was ordered in 2020 at a reported price of about $100m. It is fixed out to Petro China International (America) for up to 10 years and will be deployed to Brazil.
KNOT is owned on a 50-50 basis by shipowner Trygve Seglem and Japan’s NYK Line. The company has two 124,000-dwt shuttle tankers under construction at South Korea’s DSME. The vessels were ordered in 2020 at a reported price of $141m each.
They will be operated in the North Sea under 10-year charters with Italy’s ENI on delivery this year.
In a separate deal, Cosco Heavy Zhouhan disclosed that it has struck a newbuilding contract with a domestic owner — Zhejiang XinyiHai Shipping — to build three ultramax bulker newbuildings.
The price of the 63,600-dwt vessels was not disclosed but Cisco Heavy Zhoushan is slated to deliver the trio in 2024.
According to Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network, Zhejiang XinyiHai has a fleet of 18 vessels — six tankers and 12 small to medium-size bulk carriers — in operation.
Besides the three ultramaxes on order at Cosco Heavy Zhoushan, the Chinese owner is also building two 56,800-dwt supramax bulkers at Haitong Offshore Engineering. It is slated to take delivery of the duo next year.
