Greek shipping company Sea Pioneer Shipping has signed a contract for the construction of 2+2 50,000 dwt MR-type product tankers with South Korea’s medium-sized shipyard K Shipbuilding (formerly STX Shipbuilding & Marine), with the cost of a single ship at about $45 million and the total value of the order at about USD 90 million (RMB 643 million), according to Trade Winds News.
This is the second newbuilding contract signed by Sea Pioneer this year. In February, the Greek shipowner ordered three 81,800 DWT Kamsarmax bulk carriers from Japan’s Oshima Shipbuilding, valued at $114 million, with the new vessels scheduled for delivery in the third and fourth quarters of 2025. This is Sea Pioneer’s second bulk carrier order placed with a Japanese shipyard and the company’s first since June 2015, when it contracted Tsuneishi Shipbuilding for two 82,000 DWT Kamsarmaxes.
Sources said the product tanker order signed with K Shipbuilding is the first time Sea Pioneer has placed a shipbuilding order with a Korean shipyard. This year, K Shipbuilding has signed or put into effect a number of orders in the tanker sector.
U.S. tanker company International Seaways exercised an option for two 80,000 DWT liquefied natural gas (LNG) dual-fuel LR1 product tankers with K Shipbuilding in October this year. With the two option orders, the number of LR1 product tankers ordered by International Seaways from K Shipbuilding has increased to four, with a total value of about $231 million. The first two orders were announced in August of this year, two years after International Seaways placed an order with K Shipbuilding in March 2021 for three LNG dual-fuel Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs). The vessels, all equipped with desulphurization units, are expected to be delivered between the second half of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026.
In June, K Shipbuilding and Nakagawa Shipmanagement signed a contract for the construction of two 6,600DWT tankers, the new vessels are scheduled to be delivered in the first half of 2025, with a single vessel cost of USD 21 million and a total value of USD 42 million. In the same month, Chemnav Shipmanagement, a Greek ship owner, ordered two 50,000 DWT MR product tankers from K Shipbuilding, with a single ship cost of about USD 47 million and a total value of about USD 94 million.
In January this year, K Shipbuilding signed a contract with Al Seer Marine, a regional shipowner in Europe, for the construction of two 50,000 DWT MR tankers, with a total value of about USD 88 million and a single-vessel construction cost of about USD 44 million.