Recently, Turkish shipping company Akmar Shipping & Trading ordered three additional 64,000 dwt Ultramax bulk carriers from Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co Ltd.(DACKS), increasing its order book for Ultramax bulk carriers at the shipyard to six.
All of the newly ordered newbuildings are expected to be delivered in 2026, and the cost of a single vessel has not yet been disclosed. However, according to Clarkson data, the current newbuilding price for a 61,000-63,000 dwt bulk carrier is about $33 million.
According to the information, Akmar’s cooperation with DACKS started in 2018, when the Turkish shipowner ordered a 61,000 dwt Ultramax bulk carrier from the shipyard for delivery in 2020.In 2020, Akmar ordered an additional 1+1 61,000 dwt bulk carriers from Dalian COSCO Shipping Kawasaki, which have been completed and delivered in 2022.
It is understood that this order is the third Ultramax bulk carrier order undertaken by DACKS this year. In June this year, Danish shipping company Norden announced that it had signed a contract with DACKS for the construction of six 64,000 dwt Ultramax bulk carriers, which are expected to be delivered in the next two to three years, with an undisclosed contract value. The new vessels, which can run on both conventional bunkers and biofuels, will join Norden’s fleet of bulk carriers and product tankers owned and chartered by the company’s Assets & Logistics division upon delivery. Earlier this year (February), DACKS also signed an order for an Ultramax bulk carrier with an undisclosed owner.
Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co Ltd. was established on July 18, 2007, which is the second modernized large-scale shipbuilding enterprise invested and constructed by COSCO Shipping Group and Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries, with the ratio of shares of China and Japan being 51:49.
According to the official website, the main production facilities of the shipyard include: 2 large shipyards, 3 large outfitting wharves, 1 material wharf, 1 hull workshop, 2 welding workshops, 1 pipe and outfitting workshop, and 3 painting workshops, forming a production pattern of “2 docks and 4 berths”. The company mainly builds large bulk carriers, VLCC ultra-large tankers, VLOC ore carriers, large container ships, car carriers and other high-tech, high-value-added ships and green ships using clean energy, with an annual shipbuilding capacity of 2.4 million deadweight tons.
