Nanjing Tanker doubles down on Dalian with four more LR2s

By Amara Osei

Nanjing Tanker has picked Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corporation to build four more LR2 product and crude tankers, stretching its newbuilding programme at the yard to six hulls. The Shanghai-listed owner named DSIC the winning bidder after a tender launched last month. No price, no delivery dates — and, notably, no signed contract yet.

That's the shape of the story: an award in principle rather than a done deal. Until a formal shipbuilding contract is announced, the quartet remains an intention with a yard attached.

What does this change for the product tanker market?

Plenty, in one specific corner of it. The latest award puts Nanjing Tanker on course to roughly triple its exposure to the larger product tanker segment. For an owner whose fleet leans heavily on MR tonnage, six LR2s represent a genuine shift in trading posture — longer hauls, bigger parcels, cleaner cargoes.

The company already has two 115,000 dwt LR2s on order at DSIC under a contract signed in September 2025, with deliveries scheduled for August and October 2028. The four newbuildings will have to meet IMO Tier III emissions standards and phase three requirements of the Energy Efficiency Design Index. In plain terms: these are vessels built for the 2030s regulatory environment, not for scraping through today's minimums.

A wider renewal drive behind the order

The Dalian award doesn't stand alone. Nanjing Tanker, controlled by China Merchants, has been placing a string of orders at domestic yards as part of a fleet renewal drive:

• Two 65,000 dwt panamax crude/product tankers booked at Dalian
• Four 50,000 dwt MR product/chemical carriers contracted in July at Guangzhou Shipyard International for up to $182.8m
• The original pair of 115,000 dwt LR2s at DSIC, signed September 2025

At $182.8m for four MRs, the Guangzhou deal works out at up to roughly $45.7m per hull — a useful benchmark for anyone wondering what an LR2 quartet might eventually cost, though the owner isn't saying.

The starting point

Scale matters here. At the end of June, Nanjing Tanker controlled 73 vessels totalling about 2.8m dwt, including 34 product tankers. That works out to an average of roughly 38,000 dwt across the whole fleet — which tells you how far up the size curve these new LR2s, at 115,000 dwt each, will push the owner. Its existing product fleet is predominantly MR tonnage.

For carriers and charterers in the clean products trade, that's the number to watch. An owner moving from MR-heavy to a meaningful LR2 presence changes which trades it can credibly serve — Middle East Gulf to Asia, for one.

For DSIC, the repeat business confirms it as Nanjing Tanker's yard of choice for the larger segments, with Dalian now holding six LR2s and two panamaxes from the same account. Chinese owners awarding Chinese state yards is hardly a surprise, but the concentration is still striking.

What happens next

Watch for the formal contract signing and, with it, the price disclosure. The September 2025 LR2 pair carries deliveries in August and October 2028; the new quartet will slot in behind that, likely arriving as Tier III and EEDI phase three requirements bite harder on older competing tonnage.