Greek shipowner Panos Laskaridis has returned to the Newcastlemax bulk carrier newbuilding market. Lavinia Bulkers, the shipping company owned by Panos Laskaridis, has reportedly finalized a contract for the construction of new vessels at a Chinese shipyard.
Shipping brokerage reports indicate that Lavinia Bulkers has placed an order with Zhoushan Changhong International for four 212,000 DWT Newcastlemax bulk carriers. The construction cost per vessel is approximately $78 million, bringing the total value of the four newbuilds to about $312 million. Delivery is expected in 2030. The shipbuilding agreement was reportedly finalized last week.
This order marks Lavinia Bulkers’ first order for a Newcastlemax-class bulk carrier in 13 years; the shipping company had previously ordered six vessels of the same type from Chinese and South Korean shipyards in 2013, all of which remain in service.
In recent years, Lavinia Bulkers has focused its investments in the bulk carrier sector on small and medium-sized bulk carriers. Between 2023 and 2024, the shipowner placed orders for eight Kamsarmax-class bulk carriers at China Merchants Shipbuilding Industry Qingdao Shipyard, shipyards under COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, and Jiangsu Hantong Ship Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (HT). Five of these newbuilds have already been delivered, and the remaining three are scheduled to join the fleet in 2027.
In addition to expanding its presence in the bulk carrier sector, Lavinia Tankers—the tanker shipping company owned by Panos Laskaridis—is simultaneously expanding its crude oil tanker fleet. This year, the company placed an order with South Korean shipbuilder DH Shipbuilding for four 157,000 DWT Suezmax tankers, with each vessel costing $89 million and scheduled for delivery in 2029.
For Zhoushan Changhong International, Lavinia Bulkers’ newbuilding project will further bolster the confidence of this leading private shipyard in its return to the large bulk carrier construction sector.
Since delivering its last batch of newly built bulk carriers in 2019, Zhoushan Changhong International had been absent from the bulk carrier market for 17 years, until August 2026, when it returned to the market with an order for two 212,000 DWT bulk carriers from New Yangtze Navigation.
According to reports, the four newbuilds for Lavinia Bulkers mark the first time since 2014 that Zhoushan Changhong International has secured a large-scale bulk carrier construction contract from an overseas shipowner.
In recent years, Zhoushan Changhong International’s newbuild orders have primarily come from the container ship and oil tanker markets, and the company has established partnerships with several global shipowners, including Mediterranean Shipping Company and Greece’s TMS Group.
Recently, Zhoushan Changhong International officially entered the high-value-added car carrier market by securing a contract to operate two 8,600 CEU LNG dual-fuel car carriers from Global Car Carriers (GCC), a Norwegian car carrier operator owned by China Shipping.
According to its official website, Zhoushan Changhong International was established in 2009 with investment from New Yangtze Navigation. It currently operates three major shipbuilding and repair industrial bases in Dinghai District, Putuo District, and Daishan County of Zhoushan City, and is a large-scale shipbuilding industrial enterprise integrating shipbuilding, ship repair, shipbreaking, and metal resource utilization across the entire industry chain. The three bases cover a total area of more than 6.5 million square meters, with a total coastline of over 20,000 meters, an annual shipbuilding capacity of more than 5 million deadweight tons, and an annual ship repair capacity of over 500 vessels.