Asia/Pacific News
Chinese Owner Orders Fuel-Saving Bulkers
China's Fortune Ocean Shipping (Fortune Ocean) has ordered eight fuel-efficient bulk carriers, industry news site TradeWinds reports.
The company ordered four 61,000 deadweight tonne (dwt) vessels from Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co. Ltd. (Dacks) with delivery planned for the third and fourth quarter of 2016, and brokers estimate the ships' prices at more than $28 million each.
In addition, the shipowner ordered four 39,000 dwt bulkers from Jiangmen Nanyang Ship Engineering, with delivery set for 2015 and 2016 and prices estimated in the low $20-million range for each of the vessels.
Industry players told TradeWinds that Fortune Ocean would not have ordered the ships speculatively.
"Fortune Ocean time charters out its ships to domestic shipping companies for seven to 10 years," said one source.
"It is also involved in trading and operates some vessels itself."
The ship owner now has eight kamsarmax and two 176-dwt bulkers in operation and is said to be seeking a fleet of 2 million dwt, nearly twice the total for the existing ships, by next year.
The Dalian-based ship owner was formed in 1998 by Sun XinTao, a businessman said to have ties to Cosco, China Shipping and Sinotrans, companies that have chartered a number of the company's ships.
One analyst recently said the bulker market could take a hit from a reduction in the growth of Chinese imports and exports starting as soon as next year.
