Since September, Hengli Heavy Industries has secured new orders one after another in the new shipbuilding market, covering container vessels, bulk carriers, oil tankers and other vessel types, with an order size of more than 40 vessels.
On October 29, Guangdong Songfa Ceramics Co., Ltd (*ST Songfa) released the announcement of “Subsidiary Company Signs Significant Contracts for Daily Operations”, announcing that the construction contracts for two Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) and three Container Vessels of its subsidiary company, Hengli Shipbuilding (Dalian) Company Limited (Hengli Shipbuilding), have been signed and entered into force in the recent days.
According to the announcement, the two VLCCs are from well-known European shipowners, with a total contract value of approximately US$200-300 million. Based on this, the cost per unit is approximately US$100-150 million, and they are expected to be delivered successively from the second half of 2027 to the first half of 2028. The three 4,600 TEU container vessels are from well-known domestic shipping service providers, with a total contract value of approximately RMB1.5-1.8 billion (approximately US$211-2.54 million). The new vessels are expected to be delivered in the first half of 2028.
The VLCC is a mainstream large-scale crude oil transportation vessel with large loading capacity, strong endurance, and high operational efficiency. The vessel type is designed to take into account the route adaptability and loading flexibility, can be efficiently adapted to the loading and unloading equipment of the world’s major crude oil ports, and can meet the needs of trans-oceanic long-distance crude oil trunk transportation and large-scale transportation from oilfields to refineries, which is a crude oil carrier that conforms to the latest international oil tanker design concepts and meets the current needs of international shipping market for scaled-up and low-carbon transportation.
The 4600TEU container vessel is one of the main vessel types promoted by Hengli Shipbuilding, which is designed by the Marine Design and Research Institute of China (MARIC) and classed by Bureau Veritas (BV) as an advanced vessel type.
With low fuel consumption per container, good economy and outstanding environmental protection, this ship type mainly serves the domestic coastal north-south routes and the short-range routes in Southeast Asia, Middle East and other Asian regions, and undertakes the cargo transshipment between the mainline hub ports and the feeder ports, which is the key link to support the regional trade and the double cycle of domestic and foreign trade.
This type of vessel has low fuel consumption per container, good economy, and outstanding environmental performance. It mainly serves the north-south routes along the domestic coast and short-haul routes in Asia, such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East. It undertakes the transshipment of cargo between trunk hub ports and feeder ports and is a key link supporting regional trade and the dual circulation of domestic and foreign trade.
Hengli Heavy Industries last announced new vessel information three days ago, announcing the receipt of six 82,000 DWT bulk carriers from Greek owner EFNAV, with deliveries expected to begin in the second half of 2026.
It is also worth noting that two Greek shipowners, Seaenergy Maritime and Eastem Med.Maritime, have disclosed more details of their shipbuilding contracts with Hengli Heavy Industries.
Seaenergy Maritime has ordered Cape of Good Hope bulk carriers of 181,000 DWT in size, which are expected to be delivered by the end of 2027, and Kamsarmax bulk carriers of 80,000 DWT in size, all of which are expected to be delivered by the end of 2027, according to shipbroker Bancosta.
According to incomplete statistics, since September, Hengli Heavy Industries has been announcing new vessel orders one after another in major mainstream vessel type markets. Including the above orders, a total of 42+4 new vessels have been received, including 15 VLCCs, 7+4 container vessels and 20 bulk carriers.