Busy Hyundai Mipo Dockyard is celebrating a banner few weeks of orders now filling out available dock space well into 2020. Greece’s Empire Navigation is the latest owner reported by multiple brokers to have gone to the Ulsan builder. Empire is understood to have signed for four firm plus four options of 50,000 dwt product tankers, a core competency of Hyundai Mipo. The ships are tied to a long term charter to Cargill and will deliver in 2020. Brokers are divergent on the price however with reports ranging from $35m to $37m per unit.
Founded in 2009, Empire has 14 ships on the water. It spun off its bulker fleet as a separate entity in 2013.
Another South Korean builder has also won a product tanker order. Taiwan’s Sincere Navigation is reported by brokers as agreeing a $35.3m price for a medium range 50,000 dwt product tanker to be built by STX, a yard that has recently been saved from liquidation.