Shandong Ocean Shipping is expanding its dry bulk fleet by ordering newbuildings.
Recently, Shandong Ocean Shipping announced a “single-source procurement plan for two new Panamax bulk carriers”.
According to the announcement, SMC invited Hengli Shipbuilding (Dalian) Co., Ltd. to build two 95,000 DWT Panamax bulk carriers for it through single-source procurement. The total budget is RMB 548 million (about US$76 million), so the budget for each vessel is RMB 274 million. The industry estimates that Hengli Heavy Industries will deliver the newbuildings in 2027.
According to the official website, Shandong Ocean Shipping (formerly Shandong Port Shipping Group Co., Ltd.) was established in March 2020 and is headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong. It is a professional shipping company affiliated to Shandong Port Group. In August 2024, the shareholding reform was completed, which opened a new journey of leveraging the capital market, optimizing industrial resource allocation, and building a shipping company with core competitive advantages.
Shandong Ocean Shipping operates 40 container routes, including 19 domestic and foreign trade feeder lines around the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, 10 domestic trade trunk lines, and 11 international routes. It operates more than 60 vessels of various types with a total capacity of 1.1 million deadweight tons.
Hengli Heavy Industries was formerly known as STX (Dalian) Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., which was established in 2006 and declared bankruptcy on December 20, 2015. Hengli Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of Hengli Group, successfully acquired STX (Dalian) Shipbuilding and other idle assets at a price of RMB 2.11 billion in July 2022. Since the restart of the shipbuilding business in the fourth quarter of 2022, Hengli Heavy Industries has developed rapidly with the support of Hengli Group.
According to the news at the end of May this year, Hengli Heavy Industry holds orders for about 170 vessels, with delivery schedules up to 2029, and two new docks are scheduled to be put into use at the end of this month. In September last year, Hengli Heavy Industries realized the production of core components of marine engines. Currently, it can produce 180 marine engines per year, and is compatible with four fuels: LNG, methanol, ammonia, and LPG.