AAL Shipping has beefed up its orderbook of heavylift vessels to steal a march on rivals.

The Schoeller Holdings company’s chief executive, Kyriacos Panayides, confirmed broker reports of AAL putting pen to paper on two more 32,000-dwt methanol-ready ships at CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding in China.

The deals bring the series to eight vessels, all delivering by 2026.