Newbuildings amounting to nearly 1 million GRT were contracted to DNV Class in the last two weeks of 2002.

The welcome spree of newbuilding contracts is a consequence of mainly Greek ship owners who rushed to book available docks in 2004/2005 or they exercised options before year-end in the aftermath of the Prestige sinking.

Says CEO Miklos Konkoly-Thege of DNV: I believe this could be the beginning of a trend towards earlier renewal of the tanker fleet as a result of a more rapid phasing out of single hull tankers after the Prestige sinking.

With this, DNV has the largest market share in Greece, with 35%. The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is second with a market share of 31%, while Lloyds Register (LR) has a market share of 28%.

A fleet of close to 1 million GRT (Gross Tonnes) ordered from owners domiciled in the South Europe region, was placed exclusively in Korean yards.


The newbuilding projects are:
Greek owners.
2+1 VLCC (Very large Crude Carrier) for Avra maritime (N.S.Lemos),
2+1 VLCC (Very large Crude Carrier) for East Medditeranean (Martinos).
2 Panamax Product/Tankers for Enterprises (Restis group)

Other:
2+2 Aframaxes for Dunya (Turkish owner)
1+1 Product for Arminter (Italian owner)

Date: 2003-01-20