After more than one month, Taizhou Sanfu Shipbuilding (Sanfu Shipbuilding) added another new order in Ultramax bulk carrier newbuilding market.
South Korean shipping company Samjoo Maritime and an unnamed shipowner have placed orders for a total of five Ultramax bulk carriers with Sanfu Shipbuilding, three from Samjoo Maritime and two from an unnamed shipowner. All five new bulk carriers are expected to be delivered in 2027, with prices yet to be announced.
This is another bulk carrier order undertook by Sanfu Shipbuilding following the order for 2+2 63,500 dwt Ultramax bulk carriers from Thailand’s dry bulk shipping company Precious Shipping in May this year. Precious Shipping’s cost of a single unit is about $33.6 million. Taking this as a reference, the total value of the latest five Ultramax bulk carriers is about $168 million (about RMB 1.221 billion). Clarkson data show that the current market price of Ultramax bulk carriers (61,000 dwt – 64,500 dwt) is about $34 million, which is not a big difference.
It is worth noting that Sanfu Shipbuilding has been mainly active in the market of multi-purpose vessels, container ships and general cargo ships in recent years, and has seldom signed any construction contract for bulk carriers. After receiving an order for 15,289 DWT bulk carriers in early 2020, the shipbuilder has not undertaken any bulk carrier order in the next three years.
According to incomplete statistics, between 2022 and 2023, Sanfu Shipbuilding signed 12+12 newbuilding orders, all from overseas shipowners, including 2 x 1,300 TEU container ships, 6+10 x 7,400 DWT general cargo ships, and 4+2 x 12,500 DWT methanol reserved multi-purpose vessels.
Including the latest order, Sanfu Shipbuilding has contracted 9 Ultramax bulk carriers this year. In addition, the shipbuilder has signed a contract with Japanese shipping giant MOL for the construction of one 13,000 dwt wind module carrier, which is expected to be delivered in the spring of 2026. The value of the order has not yet been announced.
The official website shows that Sanfu Shipbuilding has two high-tech ship construction bases, Yongan Site and Kouan Site, both are located on the Golden Waterway of Yangtze River, equipped with outfitting shoreline wharves for 10,000-ton ships,7 slipways and hundreds of hoisting equipment, with a maximum lifting capacity of 900 tons. Equipped with 4 units of 170 m3 air compressor station, 150 tons and 320 tons flat car, and other types of production vehicles, 4500 tons and 800 tons of hydraulic machine and other production support equipment; with more than 1000 sets of efficient welding equipment; with plate shearing machine, pipe bending machine, large CNC three-roll plate rolling machine, 400 tons of frame cold bending machine and other CNC equipment. The company has 3 sets of 4.5m and 2.5m steel plate pretreatment production lines, various kinds of CNC platforms of more than 20,000 square meters, advanced four- spray -six- coating sandblasting workshop and other production facilities.
The company main products are including all types of container vessels, multi-purpose vessels, tankers/chemical vessels, bulk carriers, tugs, ocean engineering vessels and various types of barges, up to 120,000DWT. At present, the main products are 6500DWT multi-purpose vessel, 11000DWT multi-purpose vessel, 12000DWT and 12500DWT multi-purpose heavy lifting vessel, 18000DWT multi-purpose vessel, 2400TEU container vessel, 2800TEU container vessel, 1300TEU dual-fuel (methanol) container vessel, 3500TEU dual-fuel (LNG high-pressure) container vessel, 16900DWT great lake bulk carrier, 51000DWT bulk carrier, 57000DWT bulk carrier, 64000DWT bulk carrier, 92500DWT bulk carrier, 16500DWT chemical oil tanker (Type II), 34500DWT chemical oil tanker (Type II) ), all kinds of domestic trade dry bulk vessels, ocean engineering vessels (pipe laying vessels, cable laying vessels, 300 people living and working barges, etc.), 29m tugboats, all kinds of deck barges, etc., which are exported to Europe, South Africa and Southeast Asia and other regions, and respectively obtaining the approval of CCS, ABS, DNV, NK, BV, LR, RINA, KR, and other classification societies.
