ATHENS: Some shipyards are living a kind of ‘hand to mouth’ existence as orders become few and far between. However, there are a few contracts emanating from tanker owners.
For example, Nantong Tongbao Shipbuilding was said to have won an order from Shanghai Dingheng Shipping and Xiamen Xiangyu Group to build eight stainless steel chemical tankers worth RMB1 bill ($160.95 mill), local media reports said.
Tongbao Shipbuilding reportedly said that the yard will need three to five years to build the eight ships, which range between 2,000-15,000 dwt. Li Duozhu, chairman of Dingheng Shipping, a subsidiary of investment firm Dingheng Group, reportedly said that the chemical tanker shipping market had started to recover from a low. He added that in line with China’s growth, demand for chemical tankers will strengthen.
Li predicted that over the next 10 years, demand for chemical tankers will increase by fivefold from the current levels, the media reports said. In comparison, Shenzhen-listed Sainty Marine was believed to have lost orders for 14 stainless steel chemical tankers placed by Celsius Shipping. They were to be built at its partnership yard Nantong Mingde Heavy Industry (NMHI). The 14 orders were cancelled in June 2015, with three of the newbuilds under construction and the remainder waiting to be constructed at NMHI, according to a report from IHS Maritime Sea-web. However, neither Sainty Marine nor NMHI had disclosed the cancellation as of 3rd August.
