New York-listed Scorpio has placed four more large-range 2 (LR2) newbuildings at Hyundai Samho where it booked two others earlier this month.
Two extra 114,000-dwt vessels have been penned at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, with options for more at the same $50m price.
The DSME deal marks a new yard for the Scorpio franchise, but reunites president Robert Bugbee with a shipbuilder which pieced together vessels for OMI either side of the millennium.
This latest swoop takes Scorpio’s newbuilding tally past 30, with 19 MRs and six ice-class handymaxes included alongside its eight LR2s.
Today’s development will come as no surprise given rumours about a pending deal which we reported from CMA last week.
Despite writing another cheque Scorpio still has cash to buy again having boosted its coffers with a third equity issue in four months on 13 March.
Observers believe the owner still has the capacity to spend between $50m and $100m based on the sums supporting its previous activity.
Delivery of the LR2s from Samho and DSME will take place in 2014.
To fill the gap Scorpio says it has hired two modern 115,000-dwt ships on one-year contracts priced at $16,000 daily.
While it does not identify the vessels, we reported yesterday the vessels were the 115,800-dwt Orange Stars (built 2011) and the 114,700-dwt Pink Stars (built 2010). Both are owned by Andromeda.
It has also fixed a single 37,200-dwt handymax for an initial year at $12,700 daily. A second optional year is priced at $14,000 daily.
Scorpio today has 14 owned tankers in the water and a further 21 on charter.
Its 33-strong newbuilding orderbook includes one ship for delivery in April. The rest are due by the close of 2014.
