Vale Charters Eight Tri-Fuel Newcastlemaxes From HMM in $3.5bn, 25-Year Deal
Yangzijiang returns to the 210,000 dwt segment after an eight-year absence
HMM has finalised an order for eight Newcastlemax bulk carriers at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and signed the long-term transportation agreement with Brazilian miner Vale that underpins it. Deliveries are scheduled in batches starting in 2030.
The ships carry a tri-fuel design able to run on ethanol, methanol and high-sulphur fuel oil, and are specified as LNG-ready and ammonia-ready so they can be retrofitted later. They will also be fitted with rotor sails to cut fuel consumption and emissions.
The order was first announced in June 2026, with HMM putting the cost at $105m per vessel and the eight-ship package at $843m. The charter that goes with it is the larger number: a long-term transportation contract with Vale valued at KRW 4.7tn, roughly $3.5bn, covering the eight 210,000 dwt vessels on individual 25-year charters taking effect in 2030.
That contract is the third major agreement between HMM and Vale since May 2025. The two earlier deals, signed in May and September of that year, were valued at $475m and $320m and each carried a ten-year charter term. The step from ten years to 25 is what distinguishes the latest package, and it is the length rather than the freight level that makes a newbuilding of this type financeable.
Vale has been building the wider programme through a tender launched earlier this year for long-term charters or contracts of affreightment covering approximately twenty tri-fuel Newcastlemaxes. Alongside the HMM ships, the miner has secured charters for four vessels ordered by South Korea's Wooyang Shipping at New Times Shipbuilding and four ordered by Polaris Shipping at Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding.
For the builder the order is a return rather than an extension. It is Yangzijiang's first Newcastlemax contract since 2018, ending an eight-year absence from the segment. As of the end of June 2026 the yard's bulk carrier orderbook consisted primarily of vessels between 32,000 and 83,000 dwt, roughly 30 ships in total, so the 210,000 dwt hulls sit well above anything else it has on order in the type.
The wider book gives the yard room to absorb them. As of 7 August, Yangzijiang held an orderbook of 256 vessels valued at a total of $22.4bn with delivery schedules extending to 2030, and had delivered 43 vessels against an annual target of 58, or 74.1 percent of the year's programme.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 22 September 2026.
