Adamantios Lemos-controlled Unisea Shipping has halved an order for aframax tankers at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI).

Unisea turned to the South Korean yard for a pair of 115,000-dwt crude oil tankers in March 2015 and followed it up by talking up two options that August.

Now, market sources advise that the contract has returned to just two vessels.

Hulls 2192 and 2193 are set for completion in July and September this year and will still join the Greek owner’s fleet. However, the second round of tankers, Hulls 2178 and 2179, have been deleted.

It is unclear which party cancelled the ships or if a mutual agreement was reached. Officials at Unisea were unavailable  for comment at the time of writing.

Unisea Shipping has a strong preference for vessels built by SHI, which constructed the five aframax tankers in its fleet.

 

Ships worth less

When the newbuildings were placed, the ships were reported to be costing $55m each. Today, Vessels­Value places the tankers at less than $40m each.

Unisea’s two trading supramax bulkers were built at Hyundai-Vina­shin Shipyard.

According to data from Banchero Costa, only five new aframaxes were contracted in 2016, a year that saw 21 such tankers delivered.

Last year’s tally is some way below the 59 aframax newbuildings recorded in 2015 and the 22 seen the previous year.

While newbuilding activity was down across the shipping world in 2016, SHI secured contracts for five tankers last year.

This left it second only to Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries which logged eight, Banchero Costa says.