Three Greek shipowners have joined the wave of orders for Very Large Ammonia Carriers (VLACs), signing contracts with Hengli Heavy Industries for a total of eight new vessels.
Multiple shipbroking firms report that Dynacom Tankers Management, owned by George Procopiou of Greece, and Capital Maritime & Trading, owned by Evangelos Marinakis, have each signed contracts with Hengli Heavy Industries for the construction of two 93,000 cbm VLACs. In addition, according to market reports, Evalend Shipping, owned by Greece’s Kriton Lendoudis, has also ordered four 93,000 cbm VLACs from Hengli Heavy Industries.
The cost of this batch of orders has not yet been disclosed. The two new vessels ordered by Dynacom and Capital, respectively, are expected to be delivered in 2028, while Evalend Shipping’s four new vessels are scheduled for delivery between 2028 and early 2029.
For these three major shipping companies, if this batch of new vessels is confirmed, it will mark Dynacom’s official entry into the large liquefied gas carrier market and further expand its green business portfolio.
Capital, meanwhile, will use this order to increase its VLAC order book to four vessels. In 2023, the company, through its gas carrier subsidiary Capital Gas, ordered 2+1 88,000 cbm VLACs from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, with each vessel costing $116 million and scheduled for delivery in 2027.
Evalend Shipping will also actively expand its gas carrier fleet through the four newly ordered vessels. It is worth noting that the company previously entrusted only its oil tanker and bulk carrier orders to Chinese shipyards, while gas carrier orders were almost exclusively handled by South Korean shipyards; this shift to placing an order for four VLACs with Hengli Heavy Industries is indeed rare.
Regarding the shipbuilder, Hengli Heavy Industries’ first VLAC was launched on June 23, 2026, becoming the world’s first VLAC to be built on a slipway and successfully launched, thereby breaking the traditional practice of constructing large gas carriers in dry docks.
As reported by Hengli Heavy Industries, its first VLAC has achieved independent production of its liquid cargo tanks and will be equipped with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) dual-fuel engine manufactured in-house by the shipbuilder. From liquid cargo tanks to dual-fuel propulsion systems, Hengli Heavy Industries has achieved independent supply of core equipment for the VLAC, giving it advantages in delivery lead times, construction costs, and quality management.
Looking at the overall order book, Hengli Heavy Industries has performed exceptionally well: In the first half of 2026, it secured orders for 207 new vessels, including 49 bulk carriers, 56 container ships, 94 oil tankers, and 8 VLACs, setting dual records for both the scale of orders received by a single shipyard and the diversity of vessel types. To date, Hengli Heavy Industries has accumulated orders exceeding 500 vessels, with delivery schedules extending through 2030.
In terms of deliveries, Hengli Heavy Industries delivered 40 new vessels ahead of schedule in the first half of 2026, with a full-year delivery target of 82 vessels. Thanks to increases in both new vessel starts and deliveries, Hengli Heavy Industries achieved significant growth in its first-half performance, posting a net profit attributable to parent company shareholders of approximately 3.6 billion yuan—a year-over-year increase of 456.33%—and a net profit excluding non-recurring items of approximately 3.5 billion yuan, up 2,922.83% year-over-year.
As the world’s largest single-site, most comprehensively equipped green shipbuilding base, Hengli Heavy Industries has established core production capacities of 3 million tons of annual steel processing and 300 engines per year. With four ultra-large dry docks and world-class shipbuilding berths, the company is capable of simultaneously mass-producing high-value-added vessel types such as VLCCs and 10,000-TEU container ships.