Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical has fixed an additional six 98,000 cu m VLECs through newbuild orders and charters in order to meet its growing ethane transportation demands from its new plant in Lianyungang, confirming a report by Splash last month.
Satellite Petrochemical ordered two VLECs each at Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries, with deliveries scheduled in 2022. The total price of the four vessels is $441m, and the company is looking for buyers to take over the ownership of the vessels as part of a sale and leaseback arrangement.
Additionally, the company has chartered another two VLECs from Tianjin Southwest Maritime for a period of 15 years with a total charter cost of $500m.
Satellite Petrochemical currently has six 98,000 cu m VLECs under construction at Hyundai Heavy and Samsung Heavy, and last month the company sold the ownership of the six vessels to Malaysia’s MISC and chartered them back for a period of 15 years.
Satellite Petrochemical is the largest acrylic acid producer in China, and all of the VLECs will be used to transport raw materials from Texas to Lianyungang. The phase one project of the company’s new petrochemical plant will commence operations later this year and the second phase is scheduled to start production in the middle of 2022.
