Greek shipping company Pleiades Shipping has once again ordered additional new vessels from Chinese shipyards to renew its fleet.
As previously reported, Pleiades Shipping has signed a contract with New Times Shipbuilding for the construction of 2+2 73,500 dwt crude oil/product tankers. Recently, Pleiades Shipping’s fleet list has been updated to show that three additional 73,500 dwt crude oil/product tankers have been ordered from New Times Shipbuilding, bringing the number of orders for this series of vessels to five.
The new vessels, which use conventional marine fuels, will cost about $55 million each, for a total of about $275 million for five, with deliveries scheduled for 2027 to 2028.
Pleiades Shipping, which has a history of more than 50 years and has previously placed orders only with Korean and Japanese shipyards, now has a fleet of nine tankers, all built by Korean and Japanese shipyards. The order from New Times Shipbuilding is the first time that the shipowner has ordered a new vessel from a Chinese shipyard.
According to Clarkson data, in 2024, New Times Shipbuilding received orders for 106 ships and 4.63 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT), which is the highest among all single-hull shipyards (not shipbuilding groups) in the world in terms of CGTs.
New Times Shipbuilding has 500,000-ton, 300,000-ton and 100,000-ton dry docks, and its main products are large and medium-sized bulk carriers, tankers, container ships and various chemical ships. With the increase of orders, the New Times Shipbuilding is investing RMB 5 billion to expand its production capacity. The new project, which covers an area of 900 mu, will build a new 700-meter-long dock, and will have four dry docks upon completion.