Tanker and Car Carrier Orders Surge as Yards Fill 2029-2030 Berths at Firm Prices

Product tanker ordering led the week. Evangelos Pistiolis-led Top Ships agreed to acquire four special purpose companies holding contracts for 50,000 dwt eco, scrubber-fitted, Ice Class 1A MR product tankers at Guangzhou Shipyard International for about $34.95m, with deliveries scheduled between June 2029 and March 2030. Roughly 85% of the shipbuilding instalments are covered by lease financing arranged with a major Chinese leasing house, and all four vessels are already fixed to an oil major for seven years from delivery with options for a further three years, giving the quartet potential revenue of about $316.9m. The deal lifts Top Ships' MR newbuilding pipeline to 14 vessels and contracted revenue from that programme to roughly $997m.

Car carriers were the other active segment. JP Morgan-backed Norwegian Car Carriers added another pair of 7,100 ceu units at CIMC Raffles' Yantai facility for delivery in 2030, taking its confirmed programme with the yard to six ships, with shipping databases showing a further two hulls listed against the owner for 2030 and 2031 that have not been disclosed. Wallenius Wilhelmsen raised about NOK2.88bn, or $300m, of new equity through a private placement of 17.145m shares at NOK168 each to fund four large LNG dual-fuel car carriers for 2030 delivery plus options for eight more delivering quarterly from 2031. If all options are exercised its programme would reach 26 vessels with deliveries running from the third quarter of 2026 through 2032.

Crude and product tanker contracting showed where prices now sit. Scorpio Tankers returned to the VLCC sector with two 306,000 dwt units at Hengli Heavy Industries in Dalian for September 2028 delivery, with newbuilding indications around $135m per ship and some market estimates closer to $175m. X-Press Feeders ordered three 157,000 dwt tankers at Penglai Jinglu Ship Industry at about $80m each for December 2028 delivery with options for three more, while YZJ Maritime contracted six 114,000 dwt LR2 product tankers at Jiangsu Haifeng Shipbuilding at roughly $79.5m each with deliveries from March 2029 and options for two additional hulls. Greek owner Carlova Maritime booked two 114,000 dwt Aframax tankers at Japan's Imabari Shipbuilding for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2029 and first quarter of 2030, against a September benchmark of about $76m per hull.

The breadth of the ordering is the signal. One orderbook tracker recorded 147 newbuilding contracts across nine segments in week 40 of 2026, totalling 3,467,600 dwt, including 29 tankers and 10 bulk carriers. The tanker orderbook stands at 2,385 ships on order, under option or under letter of intent at 157 yards for 317 owners, equivalent to 10.2% of the 23,491 ships in service, with 900 orders placed over the past twelve months. Chinese yards hold more than 65% of the global orderbook and average newbuilding lead times remain close to three and a half years, which is why owners are now committing to berths that only open at the end of the decade.