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Tsakos concludes suezmax order switch in South Korea

Brokers report that Greek owner Tsakos has successfully negotiated the conversion of two 2,782 teu container vessels in South Korea into contracts for a pair of 158,000 dwt suexmax tankers, to be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries.

“This move marks a shift from the container market, which is now in oversupply and is also threatened by global recession fears,” brokers Intermodal noted, explaining the rationale for the order switch.

The Greek owner is paying $85m per suezmax, which is almost 13% higher than what Euronav paid for two similar suezmax newbuilds at the same shipyard in October last year.

“[C]ontainer ship owners have become concerned about the industry’s massive vessel orderbook, which will see record deliveries in 2023 and 2024,” Alphaliner noted in a recent weekly report, adding: “The market might well struggle to absorb all this new capacity and more and more carriers and non-operating owners have turned to the shipyards to inquire about container ship order deferrals, cancelations or conversions into other ship types.”

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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