Greek owners lift newbuilding investment across all segments in last three months

Greek owners have splashed billions on newbuild contracts with the first half of the year already pointing to unusually strong momentum.

The Strait of Hormuz crisis remains unresolved, keeping upside risk in bunker fuel prices and voyage costs firmly in place. But the Greek investment appetite has not slowed, and a large share of the orderbook is directly tied to energy transportation through VLCCs, suezmaxes, LNG carriers, VLGCs, and VLACs.

Allied Shipbroking reported this week that March marked the start of a particularly active period. The Greek broker in its Allied QuantumSea Research noted that March was driven mainly by tankers, as the Strait of Hormuz crisis pushed Greek owners first and hardest into VLCC and suezmax newbuilding orders.

April and May then broadened the picture, with container vessels and kamsarmax bulkers stepping up first, before dry bulk, gas and tanker activity combined into a much wider spread by late May.

What started as a tanker-led ordering cycle in March has broadened into a more diversified cycle across dry bulk, container shipping, and gas carriers.

According