According to Greek media reports, multiple shipping data platforms show that Safety Management Overseas, a ship management subsidiary of dry bulk shipowner Safe Bulkers, is building two 50,000 DWT MR product tankers at COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong), with delivery dates extending to 2027. The company is led by Polys V Hajioannou, a subsidiary of Safe Bulkers.
If confirmed, this order will be COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong)’s first publicly announced merchant ship order this year. Including this latest order, COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong) has announced a total of 14 new ships of four types since 2024, including two 20,000 DWT transshipment barges, two 53.4-meter offshore tugboats, four 7,999 DWT methanol bunkering vessels and 4+2 MR product tankers.
Data shows that COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong) was restructured and established in 2017. COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong) operates two facilities: the Machong site in Dongguan and the Huangpu site in Guangzhou. The combined facilities cover an area of 710,000 square meters, featuring one 150,000-ton floating dry dock, two 80,000-ton floating dry docks, four sslipways and seven deep-water piers. The total shoreline extends over 2,000 meters.
As one of COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry’s primary ship repair and construction bases along China’s coastline and a major ship repair and construction enterprise in South China, COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong) offers repair and modification services for LNG carriers, FSOs, coal transfer barges, semi-submersibles, large container ships, cement carriers, and various mainstream vessel types in the market.
As one of COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry’s major shipbuilding and repair bases along the Chinese coast and one of the largest shipbuilding and repair enterprises in South China, COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong)’s repair and conversion products cover LNG carriers, FSOs, coal-fired barges, semi-submersible vessels, large container ships, cement ships, and various mainstream ship types on the market.
In the shipbuilding business, from 2010 to 2020, COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong) built and delivered a total of 80 ships, covering a variety of vessels and marine engineering equipment projects, including livestock transport vessels, dredgers, comprehensive geological survey vessels, marine engineering support vessels, semi-submersible auxiliary drilling platforms, container ships, and bulk carriers.
In 2020, COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong) announced the transformation of its shipbuilding operations toward high-end marine and land-based steel structure construction projects to align with the national new energy development strategy. Four years later, it announced the resumption of its shipbuilding operations.
The latest contracts for two product tankers are not only significant for the shipyard, but also mark a strategic shift for the shipowner Safety Management Overseas. By entering the product tanker market with these two ships under construction, the company is shifting its business focus from bulk carriers to the tanker sector.
Equasis data indicates that Safety Management Overseas operates 17 bulk carriers, several of which also appear on Safe Bulkers’ fleet list. To expand into the tanker sector, the shipowner appears to be strengthening its team by recruiting tanker industry talent. Records show that Michael Kontaratos, who previously served as a financial advisor and corporate strategist at Pantheon Tankers and Alpha Gas, has been appointed as General Manager of Safety Management Overseas.
Additionally, the two newbuilds mentioned above are also significant for the global shipbuilding market. Orders for medium-sized tankers have remained sluggish this year, with Greek shipowners placing only a very limited number of MR2 tanker orders.
Statistics from shipbroker Xclusiv indicate that Greek shipowners ordered only 8 MR2 tankers between January and October 2025, compared to 30 orders placed throughout all of 2024. Globally, just 40 MR2 tankers have been ordered so far this year, significantly lower than the 175 new tankers in 2024.