New ship deliveries of product tankers are expected to reach 12 million dwt in 2025, a 256% jump from 3.4 million dwt in 2024, according to shipping association BIMCO.
Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO, commented, “Deliveries in 2025 will be a 16-year high and the second highest on record.”
According to Greek shipbroker Intermodal, deliveries of product tankers in 2024 will be just 49, the lowest since 2001, but will rebound strongly in 2025, with 179 product tankers of more than 10,000 dwt expected to enter service.
The surge in product tanker deliveries in 2025 stems from a significant increase in orders in 2023 and 2024. In these two years, 551 new vessels with 38.7 million tons of deadweight were contracted, well above the annual average of 122 (7.3 million deadweight tons) over the past 10 years.
Rasmussen said, “The surge in newbuilding signings has increased the order book from 10.6 million dwt at the beginning of 2023 to 41.2 million dwt at the beginning of 2025. During the same period, the orderbook-to-fleet ratio rose from 6% to 22%.”
Over the past two years, orders for MR product tankers have been the highest, with 278 vessels under contract, while LR2 has the highest deadweight, at 19.2 million dwt. These two ship types will also dominate deliveries in 2025, with 98 MR tankers and 52 LR2 tankers expected to be delivered, respectively.
If compared to their size at the beginning of 2025, the planned new deliveries will increase the deadweight of the global Handysize, MR, LR1 and LR2 fleets by 2%, 6%, 3% and 12%, respectively.
Nearly 75% of the ships scheduled for delivery in 2025 were contracted in the last two years. Nonetheless, only 7 per cent of new ships are capable of using alternative fuels, and another 12 per cent can be retrofitted to use alternative fuels.
Dismantling of product tankers has been slow over the past five years, with the average age of the product tanker fleet increasing by more than 2.5 years since the beginning of 2020. Continued low recycling will prolong the life of older tankers while slowing down the process of fleet renewal and decarbonization.