Cosco Shipping Energy commits to 24 new VLCCs in fleet push

Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation has ordered ten VLCC newbuildings and lined up bareboat charters for fourteen more, adding up to 24 fresh crude carriers in a single fleet package. The dual-track programme pairs firm shipbuilding contracts with leasing arrangements, in a move the Chinese tanker operator says will scale crude capacity while aligning its fleet with global decarbonisation mandates.

The firm orders sit with the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Hainan Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation, which signed contracts across two Chinese yards. Six of the VLCCs went to Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry (Yangzhou), with deliveries scheduled between August 2029 and November 2030.

Where will the other four tankers come from?

The remaining four VLCCs are on order at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Group, with handover pencilled in from September 2029 through May 2030. In practice, that means the first of the ten firm newbuildings will join the fleet in August 2029 and the last in November 2030 — a roughly fifteen-month delivery window for the yard-built portion of the programme.

All ten firm-ordered tankers will feature LNG/methanol dual-fuel-ready power systems, paired with what the company describes as advanced energy-saving and intelligent onboard technologies. That specification positions the vessels to run on cleaner fuels as emission rules tighten, without locking the operator into a single fuel choice at the yard stage.

Cosco Shipping Energy framed the 2029–2030 delivery schedule as a core strategic move, designed to capitalise on favourable crude market cycles, rationalise its fleet mix and advance what it calls its green, low-carbon transformation agenda. In plain terms, the company is betting that tonnage arriving at the end of the decade will land in a strong tanker market — and that fuel-flexible ships will hold their value as decarbonisation rules bite.

How do the 14 bareboat VLCCs fit in?

Alongside the newbuilding orders, a second Cosco Shipping Energy subsidiary, Cosmos Marine Enterprises, plans to bareboat charter fourteen newly built VLCCs from six financial leasing providers. A bareboat structure means Cosmos will operate the tankers while leasing firms hold ownership, spreading the capital cost of the expansion across multiple financiers rather than the operator's own balance sheet.

The chartered units match the firm newbuildings on propulsion. They come with clean-fuel configurations, including LNG/methanol dual-fuel-ready and dedicated LNG dual-fuel setups, alongside energy-efficiency and smart-vessel systems.

Counting both tracks, the programme adds 24 VLCCs to Cosco Shipping Energy's crude-carrying capability — a substantial injection for a single operator in a segment where an individual VLCC typically moves around two million barrels of crude per voyage.

For charterers and refiners, the arrival of fuel-flexible Chinese tonnage late in the decade signals growing availability of modern, compliant crude capacity on key lanes. For competing owners, it flags incremental supply that could weigh on tanker earnings once the ships deliver — though much depends on how many older, less efficient VLCCs exit the global fleet over the same period.

The expansion's clean-propulsion tilt also tracks tightening international rules on shipping emissions, which increasingly favour dual-fuel-ready tonnage over conventional diesel-powered VLCCs. With deliveries running from 2029 into 2030, the market will get its first read on the programme's rate impact as the new ships approach handover.