China Cosco Group has sealed a bumper order to build 10 valemaxes at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS), closely following a similar order placed by China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) last week.

The newbuilding orders were confirmed on Thursday and deliveries of the giant vessels will be between 2018 to 2019.

SWS, subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC), has benefitted greatly from the 400,000-dwt valemax newbuilding deals recently, having clinched a total of 14 orders – 10 for Cosco and four for CMES.

CMES revealed earlier that the price tag for each of the VLOC is $85m.

Coscocs, a merger of Cosco and China Shipping Group, has earlier inked a 27-year-long contract to carry iron ore for Brazil’s mining firm Vale, utilising the valemaxes to transport some 16m tonnes of iron ore each year.