Get 4 more ships! This shipyard "delivers quickly" to grab high priced ships
As a representative type of finished oil tanker, the price of MR type ships continues to rise, breaking through the $50 million mark again after 16 years.
According to information released on April 4th by the Financial Supervisory Authority (FSS) Electronic Announcement System (DART) of South Korea, HD Hyundai Oita undertook an order for four 50000 deadweight ton MR finished oil tankers worth 278.9 billion Korean won (approximately 2070.4 million US dollars) on April 2nd. This batch of new ships is scheduled to be delivered gradually before August 31, 2026.
The announcement did not disclose the name of the shipowner, but according to foreign media reports, the South Korean shipowner Pan Ocean is the one ordering the four MR oil tankers.
It is reported that this batch of MR tankers will use traditional diesel fuel power, but will be equipped with a scrubber, with a single ship cost of 51.76 million US dollars. This is also the second time that the cost of MR tankers has exceeded the 50 million US dollars mark since September 2008. At present, the average cost of 51000 deadweight tonnage MR oil tankers in the global shipbuilding market is 48.5 million US dollars. HD Hyundai Weipu's order price this time exceeds the average price by about 7%.
According to Clarkson's data, the cost of MR tankers reached a historic high of $53.5 million in September 2008, but with the outbreak of the international financial crisis, the price of MR tankers began to decline. Due to the large number of MR type oil tankers previously ordered by shipping companies, over 100 MR type oil tankers have flooded into the shipping market every year since 2010, leading to a decline in the cost of this type of vessel. During the period of severe depression in the global shipbuilding market from 2015 to 2016, the cost of MR tankers dropped to just over 30 million US dollars.
Korean industry insiders said that at that time, some Chinese shipbuilding companies even signed shipbuilding contracts with shipowners at a unit price of less than 30 million US dollars in order to compete for orders. Although they took on the risk of losses, this was also a last resort.
Since 2019, the global shipbuilding industry has begun to recover. In 2020, the cost of MR tankers recovered to $40 million and has been continuously increasing since then.
According to industry insiders in South Korea, HD Hyundai's acquisition of high priced MR tanker orders is closely related to its technological capabilities and construction efficiency surpassing its competitors. Most analysts believe that the rapid delivery period in August 2026 has had a positive impact on the price of this order. Therefore, while ensuring orders for the next three years or more, major South Korean shipping companies will become a very important means of profitability if they can offer the magic weapon of "fast delivery time".
It is reported that, including this contract, HD Hyundai Oita (including its Vietnamese subsidiary Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding) has taken on 32 orders for finished oil tankers this year, with over 60 orders held, ranking first among global shipping companies. In addition, HD Hyundai Oita has delivered over 630 MR type ships, also far ahead of other shipyards. Especially considering that the number of MR tankers delivered to the global market in the next 2-3 years is not high, HD Hyundai Oita is very hopeful to achieve performance improvement in this type of ship market.
Ralph Leszczynski, Chief Researcher of Banchero Costa, an Italian shipbuilding brokerage and service group, said, "Since 2010, more than 100 MR tankers have been built and delivered annually, while only 50-60 MR tankers will be delivered annually in the next 2-3 years. At the same time, the proportion of old ships in the MR tanker fleet is also increasing, and the demand for the replacement of old ships is also increasing. Currently, the order volume for MR tankers is less than half of that in the 2000s."
