Great Eastern buys 82,000 cu m VLGC in latest secondhand push

Great Eastern Shipping has contracted to buy a 2015-built very large gas carrier of approximately 82,000 cu m, the Mumbai-listed owner said, in a deal that extends a secondhand spending run already tracked at more than $200m this year.

The vessel is expected to join the fleet during the December quarter. The company did not disclose the ship's name, the seller or the purchase price — a silence worth noting, given that earlier 2024 transactions by the same owner were also confirmed without figures before pricing emerged from market sources. Funding will come entirely from internal resources, the company said.

Where does the ship fit in the fleet?

The acquisition lands in a fleet of 40 owned vessels aggregating 3.24m dwt. That book splits into 25 tankers and gas carriers and 15 bulkers.

The tanker and gas side breaks down as:

• Five crude carriers
• 16 product tankers
• Four LPG carriers

The dry bulk side counts two capesizes, 10 kamsarmaxes, one ultramax and two supramaxes. The incoming VLGC will become the fifth gas carrier in the group, deepening a segment where Great Eastern has been steadily accumulating tonnage alongside its core tanker renewal.

What else is in the pipeline?

The VLGC is not the only tonnage closing this quarter. Great Eastern has agreements in place to acquire two secondhand kamsarmax bulkers, and those transactions are expected to complete during the same December quarter window.

The company has also committed to a newbuilding suezmax, scheduled for delivery in the second half of its 2028–29 financial year. Both the suezmax commitment and the kamsarmax purchases are existing obligations rather than fresh orders announced alongside Friday's VLGC disclosure — a distinction the company was careful to draw.

Why the secondhand route?

The pattern is consistent. By September, earlier coverage had already tallied more than $200m of Great Eastern expenditure on secondhand tonnage in 2024, running in parallel with disposals of older vessels. The owner has been renewing its tanker and bulk carrier fleets through this cycle of buys and sells rather than placing large newbuilding orders.

The logic is straightforward for a cash-funded buyer. Secondhand VLGCs built in the mid-2010s offer near-immediate deployment in a market where modern LPG tonnage has commanded firm values, while newbuildings lock in capital for years before delivery — the suezmax arriving in the second half of FY2028–29 is the exception, not the rule, in this fleet plan.

For charterers and operators in the LPG trade, the addition of another 82,000 cu m unit to an Indian owner's fleet adds competitive capacity on routes increasingly shaped by US Gulf and Middle East exports. For Great Eastern itself, funding the deal wholly from internal resources signals balance-sheet headroom even after the $200m-plus already committed this year — though with no price disclosed, the true cost of the expansion remains an open question until market data fills the gap.

With two kamsarmaxes and the VLGC all closing in the December quarter, Great Eastern's owned fleet count and dwt total should move materially higher by year-end, barring delays.