China Merchants Energy Shipping has fixed four of its planned 10 VLCC newbuilds. CMES has placed two ships a piece at Nantong Cosco KHI Ship Engineering (NACKS) and Dalian Cosco KHI Ship Engineering (DACKS), two joint venture yards controlled by Cosco and Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries. CMES is paying $352m for the quartet, which will begin delivering at the end of 2018.

A further six orders are expected to be placed soon. CMES is in a joint venture with Sinotrans&CSC called China VLCC, which has a total of 34 VLCCs afloat at the moment with another nine to deliver.