Greece’s Aegean Shipping Management is beefing up its newbuilding orderbook at Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry, its favourite yard.

The company said in a statement on Christmas eve that it exercised an option for a third aframax vessel at the yard, in continuation of an earlier deal announced in September for two such newbuildings.

The tally is set to rise even further, to four aframaxes, following signature of a letter of intent (LOI) for yet another unit, the statement added.