John Fredriksen’s Seatankers has ordered two newcastlemax bulkers at New Times Shipbuilding in China with Allied Shipbroking noting the 208,000 dwt ships are costing $44.5m each. The ships will come with scrubbers installed and will deliver in 2020, the year the IMO’s sulphur cap comes into force.
Allied suggested in its latest weekly report that dry bulk orders were now picking up in volume.
“In the dry bulk sector, after a week of complete absence of activity, we have seen a very firm flow of new ordering emerge, in line somehow with the positive sentiment in terms of earnings, though not necessarily focused on the size segments were the most promising surge in earnings has taken place. Given that the freight market from the early part of the previous month has once again started to return back on a positive trajectory, we may well continue to see a further volume of new projects take shape during the course of this year,” the Allied report noted.
Last week Seatankers made its first OSV foray, signing an agreement with China’s Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding for the acquisition of four resale PSVs. The company currently operates a fleet of 18 vessels made up 14 bulkers and four tankers.
