South Korea"s Sungdong Shipbuilding has picked up its second order for suezmax tankers in a month.
South Korea"s Sungdong Shipbuilding has picked up its second order for suezmax tankers in a month.
The latest order is for a pair of 158,000 dwt suezmax tankers priced at $70m each.
Both vessels are scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2009.
An executive at Sungdong said the yard was sworn to secrecy regarding the identity of the European owner.
Earlier this month, Sungdong celebrated its first order in nine months when Tsakos Energy Navigation of Greece ordered a similar pair of suezmaxes at $72m each.
Later news reports suggested that rather than being genuine new orders, the two vessels were in fact negotiated replacements for two very large crude carriers ordered by Tsakos in the summer of 2008.
Sungdong"s senior vice president of sales Bonnick Koo confirmed that the Greek owner had indeed made an initial order for VLCCs, but denied a connection between this order and the suezmax contract.
?Tsakos never made a payment on the VLCCs. This actually turned out to be convenient for us as we were having problems activating yard number three (a drydock) given the slowdown in orders,? said Mr Koo.
?In the first quarter of this year, we agreed with Tsakos to let the VLCC order become void,? he added.
Mr Koo said that in order to activate yard number three an investment of $100m would be required. Instead, Sungdong has leased the space to Daewoo Construction for the foreseeable future.
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