China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) subsidiary China VLOC Investment has entered into an agreement with VLOC Maritime Holdings, a unit of ICBC Financial Leasing, to jointly invest in six 325,000dwt VLOCs.
The total investment amount of the project is $417m, of which $125.1m will be invested by CMES.
CMES started collaboration with ICBC Leasing on VLOC projects in 2016 by acquiring a 30% equity share in VLOC Maritime Holding for $381.9m. VLOC Maritime Holding currently owns a fleet of five VLOCs with another nine VLOCs under construction at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and Beihai Shipbuilding.
The two companies have secured long term COA deals with Brazilian miner Vale over the past two years.
In December last year, ICBC Leasing also ordered up to nine VLOCs at Beihai Shipbuilding under a COA deal with Vale, following its order of 10 VLOCS in 2016.
