Just stepping into the year 2025, China’s century-old shipbuilder Wuhu Shipyard has been receiving good news in the field of product tankers and chemical tankers, which are its main types of vessels, with a number of new vessel orders being made public.
On January 9, Yingxing Finance Leasing (Anhui) and RFOcean, a British shipowner, joined hands again to cooperate in chemical tankers, and the two sides signed a contract with Wuhu Shipyard for the construction of one 6,600 DWT stainless steel chemical tanker for RFOcean.
It means that RFOcean has placed another order for a 6,600 DWT stainless steel chemical tanker at Wuhu Shipyard.
It is reported that as early as July 2023, Wuhu Shipyard and RFOcean had signed a contract for the construction of four 6,600 DWT methanol dual-fuel vessels.
Subsequently, RFOcean ordered three additional vessels of the same type with hull numbers W2345, W2346 and W2347, which were not publicized. Together with the latest newbuilding in force, RFOcean has placed orders for a total of eight 6,600 DWT methanol dual-fuel stainless steel chemical tankers at Wuhu Shipyard, with a total cost of US$160 million.
According to the news of Wuhu Shipyard, the series of vessel No. 6 (W2346) has been started on January 9, and the series of vessels has been started 6 consecutively, realizing the batch construction and production.
This vessel is the optimized and upgraded version of 6600t DC electric-powered duplex stainless steel intelligent chemical vessel built by Wuhu Shipyard for Dingheng, adopting methanol, diesel and DC distribution propulsion. The vessel is 113.6 meters in length, 17.6 meters in breadth, 9 meters in depth, 6.8 meters in design draft, with double-bottomed and double-hulled structure, fitted with bow wave protection shed, deck step bridge, and set up with bow-side thruster and hydraulic crane.
Headquartered in London with offices in Oslo and Istanbul, RFOcean has a fleet of 12 chemical tankers and 2 dry bulk carriers. Its business network covers a number of key markets in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Union Maritime expands fleet, chooses the same shipyard
Coincidentally, another British shipowner, Union Maritime, which mainly operates tanker and bulk carrier businesses, chose Wuhu Shipyard to order a large number of finished oil tankers and chemical tankers as it continued to expand its fleet.
Union Maritime has recently updated its fleet list with two newbuildings of 50,000 dwt product tankers, built by Wuhu Shipyard, hull numbers W23137 and W23138, scheduled for delivery in November 2027 and February 2028, respectively.
As early as mid-2023, Union Maritime has ordered two vessels of the same type, hull numbers W23135 and W23136, scheduled for delivery in April 2027 and July 2027 from Wuhu Shipyard.
Since 2023, Union Maritime has placed orders for 18 product tankers and chemical tankers at Wuhu Shipyard, including four 49,000 dwt product tankers and ten 18,500 dwt chemical tankers in addition to the four 50,000 dwt product tankers mentioned above.
Union Maritime currently operates 66 vessels, including 51 tankers and chemical tankers (ranging from 12,000 to 105,000 DWT), 12 bulk carriers (ranging from 33,000 to 201,000 DWT) and three offshore vessels.
This shipowner in recent years to order “crazy”, and currently holds 49 newbuildings, in addition to two bulk carriers, the rest are product tankers and chemical tankers.
It is reported that these new vessels, except for two 115,000 dwt product tankers of HD Hyundai Vietnam, and two 19,900 dwt chemical tankers of Japan’s Fukuoka Shipbuilding, the rest are constructed by Chinese shipyards.
Specifically, Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (DSIC) has received 2 115,000 DWT product tankers; Yangzijiang Shipbuilding has received 2 114,000 DWT product tankers; Yangzhou COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry has received 2 114,000 DWT product tankers; Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding has received 2 114,000 DWT product tankers; Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry (XSI) has received 4 113,600 DWT product tankers; Wuhu Shipyard has received 4 50,000 DWT product tankers, 4 49,000 DWT product tankers, and 10 18,500 DWT chemical tankers; Penglai Zhongbai Jinglu Ship Industry Co., Ltd. (Jinglu Shipyard) has received 4 49,000 DWT chemical tankers; Jiangmen Nanyang Shipbuilding has received 2 40,500 DWT bulk carriers; Mawei Shipbuilding has received 3 18,500 DWT chemical tankers; Southeast Shipbuilding hasreceived 2 18,500 DWT chemical tankers; Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Co. (DSOC) has received 4 24,200 DWT product tankers.