Reborn shipyard Hengli Heavy Industries has booked four 306,000-dwt crude oil tanker newbuildings with its parent, Hengli Group.
It marks the second VLCC contract between the two parties. The first deal last year saw those tankers quickly moved on as resales to a major Greek shipowner.
The price of the latest newbuildings has not been confirmed, but brokers suggest the scrubber-fitted vessels could cost between $110m and $120m each.
The shipyard is understood to have agreed to deliver the VLCCs in 2026 and 2027.
Officials at Hengli were not available for comment.
One shipbuilding player said there is little risk for the yard in contracting the VLCC newbuildings with privately owned Hengli Group, as the latter is an oil refiner and petrochemical manufacturer.
The group has close ties with oil giant Saudi Aramco, which plans to acquire a 10% stake in subsidiary Hengli Petrochemical. The deal should be followed by long-term crude oil supply agreements, the player added.
Hengli Petrochemical owns and operates a 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery and an integrated chemicals complex in Liaoning province and several plants and production facilities in Jiangsu and Guangdong.
One newbuilding broker said: “There is also a possibility that Hengli may resell the VLCCs as it did with its first two newbuildings.”
In April, Greek shipowner George Procopiou’s Dynacom Tankers was reported to have acquired two 306,000-dwt crude carriers — Hull Nos T300-1 and T300-2 — under construction at Hengli Heavy.
Dynacom was said to have paid about $122m each for the scrubber-fitted ships, which are scheduled to be delivered in March and December 2025.
Previously known as STX Dalian, Hengli Heavy returned to the shipbuilding industry in late 2022. STX Dalian collapsed and exited shipbuilding in 2013.
In the summer of 2022, Hengli Group paid CNY 1.73bn ($256m) to acquire all STX Dalian assets, to build an offshore manufacturing base.
It pumped a further CNY 18bn to restructure the shipyard to provide shipbuilding capacity of 6.3m dwt and deliver around 40 vessels per annum at peak operation.
The shipyard’s first deal was a series of bulkers from Hengli Group. It delivered its first newbuilding, the 60,500-dwt Heng Li 33 (built 2024), in April.
Hengli Group is putting down a further CNY 11bn to expand the Dalian-based shipyard.
Under the project, Hengli Heavy will have an annual shipbuilding capacity of 1.8m dwt, along with 1.8m tonnes of steel processing capacity.
The new facility will lift the shipbuilder’s total annual shipbuilding capacity to 7.1m tonnes, more than twice its current output.
Last month, Hengli Group was reported to be looking to list Hengli Heavy on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It plans to raise $100m through the IPO.
Hengli Heavy plans to construct high-value-added green ships and advanced offshore equipment, including VLCCs, VLGCs, ultra-large boxships, offshore floating production units, storage tankers and drill ships.
