COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation (CSET) has lined up an investment plan of CNY 3.496bn ($378.3m) for six tanker newbuildings.
The board of the listed oil and gas shipping business of COSCO Shipping Group has approved the construction of two aframaxes, two LR2s, and two panamax tankers, the company said in a filing.
The newbuilding project, which also requires a green light from the shareholders, would be carried out by the group yards of COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry.
The 74,000 dwt panamax crude and product tankers will be built in Dalian at about $64m each for CSET subsidiary Hainan COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation. Both ships will be methanol fuel-ready.
COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Yangzhou is to receive the remaining orders. The aframaxes, costing $86m per ship, will be 114,200 dwt and sport methanol dual-fuel engines, the same as the 109,900 dwt LR2s, priced at $89m each.
COSCO’s energy shipping arm sports a fleet of more than 150 crude and product tankers and has stakes in nearly 90 LNG carriers, in addition to LPG and chemical tankers. CSET also recently revealed a $1.1bn fundraising move for an 11-ship newbuilding program, comprising three aframaxes, six VLCCs and two LNG carriers.