Greek shipowner Andriaki Shipping returned to the new shipbuilding market after a decade, and its first order went to a Chinese shipyard.
Andriaki Shipping recently placed an order with New Era Shipbuilding to build two LR1 type tanker ships, each costing approximately 54.8 million US dollars. The total contract value for the two ships is approximately 109.6 million US dollars (about 742 million RMB).
As a reference, according to Clarksons' data, the new shipbuilding price of a 73,000-75,000 ton LR1 type crude oil tanker is currently about 61.5 million US dollars, an increase of about 4% compared to 59 million US dollars in the same period last year.
This is Andriaki Shipping's first order for new ships in ten years, and it might also be the company's first order from a Chinese shipyard in its history.
Andriaki Shipping was established in 1953 and is one of the long-standing traditional shipowners in Greece. It is also one of the Greek shipping enterprises that established long-term cooperative relationships with Japanese shipyards earliest. It did not place orders with Korean shipyards until the early 21st century, and the ships it chose to order were still built according to Japanese standards or supervised by Japanese enterprises.
Now, Andriaki Shipping's choice of New Era Shipbuilding reflects the significant improvement in construction quality, technical level, and international market competitiveness of Chinese shipyards in recent years. Data shows that about 79% of Greek shipowners' new ship orders in the first half of this year went to Chinese shipyards.
Currently, Andriaki Shipping's fleet operates four LR1 type tanker ships, all of which were built by STX Marine Shipbuilding (now K Shipbuilding) from 2017 to 2018; in addition, the company also manages four Suez type oil ships built from 2009 to 2012.
As a traditional family shipping enterprise led by the fourth-generation family members, Andriaki Shipping has long adhered to a prudent business strategy, not pursuing blind expansion, maintaining an appropriate fleet size, and rarely engaging in ship trading. At the same time, the company has always maintained close cooperation with shipyards, continuously optimizing design and operation to improve fleet efficiency and competitiveness.
Andriaki Shipping's CEO, Panagiota Chrysanthi, said in an interview last year that the company's management believed that it was not the best time to make major long-term investment decisions at that time. Therefore, this order for two LR1 type tanker ships was more like a relatively low-risk strategic investment.
Compared with the recently highly sought-after VLCC, Suez type oil ships, and LR2 type tanker ships, the order size of LR1 type oil ships is significantly smaller. According to Clarksons' data, the current holding orders of LR1 type tanker ships in the existing fleet account for only 15%, the lowest level since September 2024. In contrast, the holding orders of LR2 type tanker ships, Suez type oil ships, and VLCC account for 29% to 37%.
The research director of Cass Technava, Eva Tzima, pointed out that the age structure of the LR1 type fleet also provides an advantageous window for current investors. She said that during the period from 2027 to 2029, there will be a large number of LR1 type and MR type tanker ships reaching the 20-year renewal node, and the number of LR1 type and MR type ships reaching the 20-year age will even exceed the number of new ships delivered during the same period, which means that the future market supply and demand fundamentals are expected to further improve. Excluding the latest order, according to Clarkson's data, as of now, New Era Shipbuilding has a total of 165 vessels with a combined deadweight of 24.96 million tons on its backlog. Among them, there are 8 bulk carriers, 87 oil tankers, and 70 container ships. The delivery dates are scheduled until 2030.