Singaporean shipping company Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS) has placed an order for 4+2+2 50,000 dwt MR product tankers at Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding, according to Trade Winds.
The contract was signed in February this year, but had not been previously announced. The new shipbuildings will be conventionally fueled and are scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2026 to 2027.
It is reported that EPS’s order for a single unit cost of about US$46.5 million, the option order all effective after the contract will reach a total amount of US$372 million (about 2.696 billion yuan). The source said, EPS is likely to execute the option order because the price is very competitive.
Together with the latest order for eight tankers above, EPS’s current number of MR product tankers under construction reaches 16. The size of the company’s fleet of MR product tankers will increase from the current 16 to 32 units by 2027, when all new tankers are delivered.
With a history spanning 60 years, EPS is a leading shipping company that is committed to the green and technology-driven growth of the industry. Headquartered in Singapore for the past 30 years, EPS is driven by its mission to be the safe and efficient transportation provider of choice to the shipping industry. Empowering that mission are 6,000 skilled and dedicated sea and shore staff that oversee a versatile fleet of 21 million deadweight-tonnes across three core segments of containership, dry bulk, and tanker vessels. EPS’ shore team is fully integrated with in-house commercial, finance, innovation, IT, legal, manning, operations, and technical departments.
For Mawei Shipbuilding, this new order from EPS is the second cooperation between the two parties. It is understood that EPS had signed a contract with Mawei Shipbuilding for the construction of 6+4 2,900 TEU container ships in March 2022, which is the first cooperation between them.
In addition, this new order is also the official entry of Mawei Shipbuilding into the new ship type MR Product tanker market. Clarkson’s data shows that the maximum capacity of the product tanker/chemical tanker orders received by Mawei Shipbuilding previously did not exceed 35,000 dwt.