Major Greek shipowner George Procopiou has ordered a series of scrubber-fitted LNG-ready suezmax tankers in China that lift his total spend on new vessels to more than $3.8bn since the beginning of 2022.
Procopiou’s Dynacom Tankers Management has struck a deal with New Times Shipbuilding for eight 158,000-dwt crude carriers, TradeWinds understands.
The deal brings the number of suezmaxes it has inked at the shipyard to 10. The other two were contracted in February.
The order also lifts its spending on tanker newbuildings, which it started in 2022, to 40 ships estimated to cost about $2.95bn.
But in total Procopiou is calculated to have splashed more than $3.86bn on newbuildings, with his family’s dry bulk company Sea Traders — run by Ioanna Procopiou — inking 26 kamsarmax bulkers worth about $910m at three Chinese shipyards.
Officials at New Times declined to comment on the shipyard’s activities citing contract confidentiality.
Brokers believe Dynacom is paying between $81m and $84m to New Times for each of the suezmaxes.
Delivery of the latest eight vessels is said to be slated for between 2027 and 2028, while the earlier two newbuildings are scheduled for 2026 delivery.
Shipbuilding observers believe Dynacom is the first shipping company to order large tankers with a four-year forward delivery date.
They said shipyards are generally unwilling to take such contracts due to future risks, such as currency fluctuations, material costs and the shipping market sentiment.
However, they added that some yards make exceptions for big clients.
New Times is one of Procopiou’s favourite shipyards in China. The shipowner helped the yard break into the large tanker segment in the 2000s.
It first contracted four suezmaxes in 2006 and followed that up with a deal for four VLCCs in 2010.
Besides the 10 suezmaxes on order at the Jiangsu-based shipyard, Dynacom has four VLCCs, two aframax product carriers and six LR1 tankers under construction at New Times.
Vast orderbook
Its huge tanker orderbook also consists of two VLCC newbuildings at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, two LR1 tankers at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and 14 LR2s at Shanhaiguan Shipbuilding — a subsidiary of DSIC.
Dynacom’s VLCC newbuildings were reported to cost about $115m apiece while the LR2 tankers were contracted at about $63m each. The 75,000-dwt product carriers were to have cost $53m per ship.
The tanker and bulker newbuildings ordered by Procopiou’s companies will be powered by conventional marine fuel.
The shipowner believes in a gradual transition towards net zero and advocates for efficient conventional-fuelled ships instead of more promising but still experimental technologies.
Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network shows the orderbook for suezmaxes at 68, of which 58 were contracted last year.
Banchero Costa global head of research Ralph Leszczynski said the strong interest in suezmaxes is because the ship type is an attractive size vessel given the growth in long-haul Russian oil exports.
