Greek shipowner Enesel has added a newcastlemax to its rapidly expanding dry bulk orderbook, bringing its return to the sector to nine newbuildings little more than a year after exiting the market.

The Lemos family-controlled company has lined up a 210,000 dwt vessel at Hengli Shipbuilding in Dalian, with delivery scheduled for November 2028. Enesel has not disclosed the contract price. Newcastlemaxes are the largest bulk carriers able to transit the Suez Canal fully loaded, and are workhorses on long-haul iron ore and coal routes, meaning their ordering activity is closely watched as a signal of owner confidence in major-commodity trade flows.

The newbuilding is Enesel's fifth large bulker ordered at Hengli, joining four 181,500 dwt capesizes due to arrive in the second half of 2027 and the first half of 2028.

The newcastlemax will measure 295 m in length with a 50 m beam, and will be equipped with a shaft generator, an open-loop scrubber and an Everllence main engine. The vessel is being built to EEDI Phase III standards, the most stringent tier of the International Maritime Organization's energy-efficiency requirements for new ships, which applies to vessels contracted from 2022 onward and pushes owners towards fuel-saving technology such as shaft generators, which produce electricity from the main engine and cut auxiliary fuel consumption.

Enesel's return to dry bulk has gathered pace since Splash first reported in April that the company had booked two capesizes at Hengli. By June, its fleet list showed the Hengli series had doubled to four ships, while another four 63,500 dwt ultramaxes had appeared at Jiangsu Hantong Ship Heavy Industry.

The latest order lifts that Chinese dry bulk newbuilding programme to nine vessels — four ultramaxes, four capesizes and one newcastlemax — all due for delivery between the second half of 2027 and November 2028. The slate reflects both Enesel's concentration at a single Chinese yard group and the industry-wide reality that shipbuilding slots at major Chinese yards are increasingly booked years ahead, with delivery windows in the late 2020s now standard for new orders.

The move marks a swift reversal for Enesel, which exited dry bulk last year through the sale of three capesizes to Hayfin Capital before re-entering the sector with the Hengli orders. The group's existing fleet remains centred on tankers and large containerships. The re-entry will be tracked by sector watchers through further orderbook additions and fleet-list changes in the coming months, following the pattern by which Enesel's earlier Hengli orders surfaced.

Source: Splash247