Greek shipowner Evangelos Pistiolis has inked four more VLCCs at Hyundai Heavy Industries, doubling his tally at the South Korean yard to eight.
The move gives him one of the world’s biggest VLCC orderbooks at a time when confidence in the tanker sector has plummeted after a global recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the order is indicative of the confidence by some players that the sector will eventually bounce back amid a globe-spanning recovery fuelled by fiscal stimulus in the US and elsewhere.
Including three suezmaxes that other Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings yards are building for Pistiolis at the moment, the Greek shipowner’s total orderbook at the shipbuilding group has reached a staggering $1bn.
When contacted by TradeWinds, the shipowner confirmed the new order for the four additional VLCCs but declined to provide further details.
According to market sources in Athens, the freshly ordered VLCCs are identical sisterships to the four high-specification, scrubber-equipped, 300,000-dwt vessels that Pistiolis booked at HHI last year.
These were the first VLCCs in the career of the Greek shipowner, who described the initial deal as a "dream come true".
"VLCCs are a childhood dream of mine, since I was 10. They always were my favourite ships," Pistiolis told TradeWinds at the time.
The Greek owner considered the time right to enter the segment. His company had the necessary operational and financial infrastructure to operate such big, expensive vessels and he also considered wider market conditions as propitious.
'Ordering when nobody else wants to'
As yard ordering activity dwindled, inflation-adjusted levels for VLCC newbuildings sunk last year to levels equal the 2017 — with only the all-time lows of more than 30 years ago preventing a new record being set, analysts said.
"We're ordering ships when nobody else wants to — that's when you get the best deals," Pistiolis said then.
The price for the new quartet is believed to be at around $90m apiece, with the order being placed by Pistiolis’ privately-held Central Shipping Group.
The first two ships among the freshly inked quartet are scheduled for delivery in the third quarter of 2022, and the final two VLCCs will be handed over in the first quarter of 2023.
Pistiolis is understood to be financing his VLCCs with lending from traditional European banks. No specific employment has been lined up for the latest quartet.
However, market sources estimate the Greek owner is confident that he will eventually find charters for them before delivery, as he has done with the first two VLCCs that he ordered last year.
Trafigura has already agreed to take the 300,000-dwt Julius Caesar and Legio X Equestris (both built 2022) until early 2025, in a chartering deal that is renewable for up to two more years.
In a complicated deal announced earlier this year, Pistiolis’ US-listed Top Ships acquired a 35% stake in each of those two VLCCs.
