Zodiac Maritime, owned by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer, is accelerating its crude oil tanker fleet renewal program, having placed orders for five additional crude oil tankers of two types at shipyards in China and Vietnam.
According to shipbuilding industry sources, Zodiac Maritime has placed an order with Jiangsu Hantong Ship Heavy Industry Co., Ltd (HT) for four 319,000 DWT Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), with a unit price of approximately US$120 million and a total order value of approximately US$480 million. Delivery is expected in 2029. Zodiac Maritime has also placed an order with Samsung Heavy Industries’ Vietnam shipbuilding base for one 157,000 DWT Suezmax tanker, costing approximately US$85 million, also with delivery expected in 2029.
The report states that Zodiac Maritime’s latest order of five new vessels is a continuation of its shipbuilding program launched in October 2025, when the shipowner ordered up to eight VLCCs (including options) and six 9,000 TEU container ships from HT. Industry analysts speculate that the VLCC order volume for 2025 is highly likely to be 4+4 vessels. Including container ships, this batch of newbuildings will utilize conventional fuels while incorporating the latest energy-saving technologies. The first batch of new vessels is scheduled to commence delivery in the second half of 2028.
Notably, Zodiac Maritime’s VLCC construction contract signed with HT last year represents the shipowner’s largest expansion in the supertanker segment in several years and its first VLCC order in over a decade. Upon delivery of the four newly ordered vessels, Zodiac Maritime’s VLCC fleet will double in size, further solidifying its return to the premium tier of the tanker market.
Just weeks before this order, Zodiac Maritime sold three aging VLCCs to Sinokor Merchant Marine, a long-established South Korean shipowner, for approximately $223 million, in order to recoup funds for restructuring its tanker fleet.
Several days ago, Hantong Group announced via its officialWeChat account that it had received orders for nine new vessels of multiple types in February 2026. The vessel types include bulk carriers and VLCCs, with bulk carriers ranging from 64,000 deadweight tons to 210,000 deadweight tons, and VLCCs with a deadweight of 319,000 tons. It remains unclear whether the four VLCCs for Zodiac Maritime are included in this batch of orders announced by the shipyard.
Over the past two years, HT has grown into a major VLCC builder. In 2024, HT secured its first VLCC order through a newbuilding project with Swiss commodities trader Trafigura. This shipowner has since become the largest client placing VLCC orders with HT. According to incomplete statistics, by November 2025, Trafigura had placed orders for at least 10 VLCCs with HT, with a total value exceeding US$1.2 billion.
Although Zodiac Maritime and HT will only commence their first collaboration in the newbuilding market in 2025—less than a year from now—the shipowner has already become one of HT’s largest clients. With a total of 8 VLCCs and 6 container ships, these orders constitute a significant portion of HT’s delivery schedule for 2028 to 2029.
Data indicates that HT’s first VLCC, the “Hantong 373”, commenced construction in February 2025 and was launched on January 7, 2026, marking a substantial breakthrough for HT in the construction of large oil tankers. The vessel measures 332.9 meters in length and 60 meters in width, with delivery scheduled for the second half of 2026.
It is understood that Jiangsu Hantong Group’s main business covers offshore engineering, shipbuilding, new energy offshore wind power and other business areas; it owns Xin Hantong, Hantong WING Heavy Industry, iangsu Hantong Changyang Intelligent Equipment Manufacturing and Jingtong Port delivery bases. Its ship design and construction capacity reaches 5 million deadweight tons, with an annual steel processing capacity of 900,000 tons. Supporting facilities include a 300,000-ton shipbuilding dry dock and a 22,000-ton semi-submersible floating dock.