Japan’s shipping giant Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) is renewing its fleet of very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and has placed an order for two 300,000 DWT VLCCs, which are expected to be delivered in 2026, with Japanese shipbuilder Japan Marine United Corporation’s (JMU) Ariake shipyard, according to Trade Winds. This is the first VLCC order signed by a Japanese shipyard this year.
In earlier news, another Japanese shipping company, MOL, placed an order for two 309,000 DWT liquefied natural gas (LNG) dual-fuel VLCCs in February this year, which were not undertaken by a Japanese shipyard but by a joint venture shipyard, Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co Ltd.(DACKS), at a cost of about $130 million per ship, with a total contract value of about $260 million, and planned for delivery in July and December 2026, respectively. The order had been in a “secret” state until July this year.
Currently, VLCC orders in the new shipbuilding market is relatively “rare”. This year, only a few new shipbuilding orders signed, the global order book is slightly more than 20 ships. Clarkson data shows that the end of October as a benchmark, VLCC market price of 128 million U.S. dollars, the same as in September. If the previous for the standard, Japan Post Ship’s two new ships worth about $256 million.
Despite fewer orders, the VLCC newbuilding market has also seen a landmark event this year in the form of an order for the world’s first methanol dual-fuel powered smart VLCC. The vessel was ordered by Chinese shipowner China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) at a net price of US$108 million per vessel. Dalian Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), together with China Shipbuilding Trading Co., Ltd. (CSTC) formally signed the shipbuilding contract on September 15 this year, and the delivery is scheduled for the end of 2025. This type of ship is the latest eighth generation VLCC ship type independently developed by Dalian Shipbuilding, with total length of about 333 meters, ship width of 60 meters, applying the latest ship design, with more excellent comprehensive performance, able to navigate the Strait of Malacca quickly, shorten the operation cycle, and improve the efficiency of the ship’s operation effectively.