D’Amico International Shipping has just announced that its operating subsidiary d’Amico Tankers Limited – Ireland entered into an agreement for the construction and sale of two new long range (LR1 – 75,000 dwt) product tanker vessels with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard. These units are options, similar to the ones already purchased as disclosed last April and June. They will be built by Hyundai Vinashin in Vietnam and are expected to be delivered in 2018. The total investment amount for this latest order is about $44m each.
D’Amico International Shipping DIS currently controls a fleet of 48 double-hull product tankers (MR and handysize) with an average age of about 7.8 years (of which 23 are owned and 25 are chartered-in vessels). At the same time the Italian shipping company, through d’Amico Tankers, has currently a total of 14 new eco design product tanker shipbuilding contracts, which include six LR1s, four MRs and four handysize vessels, all under construction at Hyundai Vinashin for delivery between Q4 2015 and Q3 2018.
Marco Fiori, ceo of d’Amico International Shipping, said: “For d’Amico International Shipping it is important to strengthen its presence in the LR1s, which I am sure will prove to be a very rewarding segment within our industry, thanks on the one hand to a very low orderbook and on the other hand to the expansion of the tonne/mile demand, following the concentration of the world refining capacity in the US and in the Middle and Far East, away from some of the main consuming regions of the world. In this context, I believe LR1s, with their larger cargo capacity, will be in great demand in the years to come, thanks to their ability to carry larger quantities on the same distances”.
