Tanker Order Wave Pushes VLCC Newbuilding Prices to $138m as Yards Fill 2029 Slots
Shipbuilding activity accelerated again this week with 83 fresh newbuilding orders spanning tankers, container ships, bulk carriers, LNG carriers and car carriers, and Chinese yards took a substantial share. New VLCC prices have climbed 8.4% this year to $138m while five-year-old VLCCs are up 70% to $196.3m, and HD Hyundai agreed to buy Goltens Worldwide for $247.5m to expand its ship repair footprint.
Global shipbuilding activity accelerated sharply in the week to 7 October, with 83 fresh orders reported across tankers, container ships, bulk carriers, LNG ships, car carriers, multipurpose vessels and offshore units, according to HandyBulk's weekly contracting round-up. Chinese yards secured a substantial share of the business, and newbuilding prices continued to edge higher even as delivery positions stretch toward 2030. The worldwide orderbook has expanded about 25% year on year to roughly 225 million CGT, approaching the absolute volume of the 2008 boom, although at about 23% of the existing fleet it remains far below the 52% peak of that cycle. Average newbuilding lead times are now close to 3.5 years.
Tanker contracting remains the strongest segment. Top Ships, led by Evangelos Pistiolis, agreed to acquire four special purpose companies holding contracts for 50,000 dwt eco, scrubber-fitted Ice Class 1A product tankers at Guangzhou Shipyard International for about $34.95m, with deliveries between June 2029 and March 2030, Splash 247 reported. All four vessels are already fixed to an unnamed oil major for seven years from delivery, with options worth up to about $316.9m of revenue, lifting Top Ships' MR newbuilding pipeline to 14 vessels and potential contracted revenue to roughly $997m. Elsewhere in the week, Scorpio Tankers returned to the VLCC sector with two 306,000 dwt ships at Hengli in Dalian at around $135m each, X-Press Feeders booked three 157,000 dwt tankers at Penglai Jinglu for about $80m each, and YZJ Maritime contracted six 114,000 dwt LR2 product tankers at Jiangsu Haifeng at about $79.5m each.
Prices are moving with the order flow. Veson Nautical's Q4 2026 outlook puts the price of a new VLCC up 8.4% this year at $138m, while the value of a five-year-old VLCC has risen 70% to $196.3m, a level at which 15-year-old tonnage is reportedly trading above newbuilding cost. Some 198 VLCCs have been ordered so far in 2026 against 89 in all of 2025, with new crude tanker orders now making up around 80% of all tanker contracting. Dry bulk is firmer too: Capesize earnings averaged around $41,000 a day in the third quarter, up 66% year on year, and secondhand five-year-old Capesizes gained 6.5% in the quarter, Panamaxes 3.5% and Supramaxes 5.2%.
Consolidation is picking up alongside the ordering. HD Hyundai agreed on Thursday to acquire Goltens Worldwide for $247.5m, a deal that significantly expands the Korean group's international engineering and aftermarket capability in ship repair. Shipyard output is expected to accelerate materially, potentially reaching around 64 million CGT in 2027 and 69 million CGT in 2028, with Chinese yards now accounting for more than 65% of the global orderbook. The risk flagged across the market data is that fleet growth accelerates toward roughly 6% a year in 2027 and 2028, faster than underlying cargo demand, once the current disruption-driven earnings fade.