Transpetrol enters the LR1 segment with two Yangzijiang newbuildings

Transpetrol has moved into the LR1 segment, ordering two 75,000 dwt product tankers at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding. The Brussels-based owner has delivery positions in the first and second quarters of 2030.

Neither the contract price nor the propulsion arrangement has been disclosed. The owner describes the pair as super eco units and says in its own announcement that "the specification of the new vessels includes all eco-features to ensure that they will operate safe and efficiently with a minimum of fuel emissions." Whether that extends to a dual-fuel arrangement or stops at hull, propeller and waste-heat efficiencies is not stated, and on a 2030 delivery the owner has time to decide.

The order matters more for what it adds than for its size. Transpetrol's owned product tanker arm has been built around six vessels of roughly 50,000 dwt, including the 2011-built Turmoil and Luctor and four MRs delivered between 2019 and 2021. An LR1 is a different cargo book: longer-haul clean parcels, and naphtha and diesel runs east of Suez, carried in a hull roughly half as large again as the ships the owner runs today.

It is also not the only line in the orderbook. Two very large gas carriers are on order at Hyundai Samho in South Korea for the third and fourth quarters of 2028, taking the company's current newbuilding programme to four ships across two segments. Three tankers, the TP Promise, TP Progress and TP Prospect, joined the fleet during 2026 from Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding.

Transpetrol carries crude, refined products, liquefied petroleum gas and vegetable oils, a spread that explains the mixed orderbook. The delivery dates are the other thing worth reading. A contract signed in September 2026 for the first and second quarters of 2030 is a position more than three years out, which is what a berth at a first-tier Chinese yard costs an owner in time at the moment.

This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 23 September 2026.