DAEHAN shipbuilding announced on the 5th that it had signed a construction contract for three shuttle tankers with a capacity of 154,000 DWT each with a company in Oceania on the 2nd. The contract amount is approximately 4 billion dollars, marking the largest in the history of DAEHANshipbuilding since its establishment. The shipbuilding cost per vessel is around 130 million dollars.
This shuttle tanker order comes approximately three years after DAEHANshipbuilding signed its first shuttle tanker construction contract in 2020. The vessels, measuring 276.4 meters in length, 48 meters in width, and 23.7 meters in height, will be deployed in the transportation of oil for Brazil’s energy company, Petrobras, and are scheduled to be delivered sequentially from November 2026.
The shuttle tankers constructed by DAEHANshipbuilding are specialized vessels that transport oil produced in offshore plants from the sea to onshore storage facilities. In addition to oil storage space, these vessels are equipped with special features such as Bow Loading Systems (BLS) on the foredeck for liquid cargo loading and Dynamic Positioning Systems (DP) that maintain a stable position even in environments with currents or waves during loading.
DAEHANshipbuilding, primarily known for constructing medium-sized petroleum product carriers and crude oil carriers, successfully entered the high-value-added ship sector by delivering four LNG dual-fuel propulsion ships in 2023. Currently, the company is also constructing four 8,000 TEU container ships.
Having strengthened its competitiveness in key ship types such as Suezmax-class oil carriers with orders for 13 vessels last year, DAEHANshipbuilding is actively engaging in the development of new ship types and technologies, including ammonia transport vessels.
With this latest order, DAEHANshipbuilding has secured a total backlog of 28 vessels, ensuring a three-year pipeline of construction projects.
Although DH Shipbuilding did not disclose the shipowner’s information, sources said that the shipowner is MARAN Tankers, a tanker company under the Angelicoussis Shipping Group of Greece, which is said to be the first time for MARAN Tankers to enter the shuttle tanker market. The order is also DH Shipbuilding’s first shuttle tanker contract after a three-year hiatus (first contract in 2020).
It is understood that MARAN Tankers was established in 1992 and currently has a fleet of 55 ships with a total capacity of 16,235,549 dwt and an average age of 7.8 years.