· Stealth Maritime now has 16 tankers on order, all from South Korean shipbuilders
· All five Vafias-backed shipping companies, including three publicly listed owners, are debt-free
· C3is raises $6m from offering and trading volumes soar above US giants
Greek owner shows faith in tanker markets with $1.4bn worth of new constructions, despite concerns about overordering.
STEALTH Maritime, shipowner Harry Vafias’s tanker and liquefied petroleum gas carrier management arm, has extended its newbuilding orderbook with a pair of medium range product tankers.
The two MR2s have been contracted with HD Hyundai and are scheduled for delivery in 2029.
According to an industry source, the vessels will cost about $53m apiece, including upgraded specifications.
The new brace brings Stealth’s tanker orderbook to 16 vessels contracted at a total cost of about $1.4bn.
Earlier this year, the Greece-based owner ordered two very large crude carriers from Hanwha Ocean.
The Vafias Group sold its last VLCCs in 2008 and the Hanwha pair will mark its first return to the segment since.
The remainder of the newbuildings, including four suezmaxes, four aframaxes and now six MR2s have all been ordered from the Hyundai Group.
The all-South Korean company orderbook is not a surprise. Vafias has long shown a deliberate preference for ordering in Japan or South Korea.
This runs counter to China’s current domination of the shipbuilding market and the habits of most compatriot Greek owners, for whom about 60% of newbuildings currently on order are being built in the country.
The group is also a rarity in Greece for having a large fleet of vessels on the water with virtually no Chinese-built units among them.
Vafias acknowledged the surge in newbuilding investments by owners around the world in the past couple of years.
“There are too many newbuildings on order in all segments,” he said.
If the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East ended, said Vafias, “I am afraid we may see a rapid deterioration of day rates.”
Few owners, however, appear to be as well positioned as the Vafias Group to withstand most downturns.
The group has a fleet of 110 vessels across five companies, all of which are debt-free.
As well as private-held family companies Stealth and Brave Maritime, Vafias helms three publicly listed companies – LPG carrier owner StealthGas, Imperial Petroleum, which currently controls nine tankers alongside 12 bulkers, and C3is, which will have a fleet of three bulkers after delivery of an MR tanker it is buying.
The smallest of the group’s US listed companies, Nasdaq-listed C3is, last week raised about $6m from an underwritten public offering with Maxim Group.
Trading in the company’s shares caught the eye with several days of sky-high volumes.
On July 28, for example, it was the second heaviest-traded stock in the US markets, with share numbers surpassing giants such as Amazon, Google and Nvidia.
