Scorpio Tankers has purchased a newbuild product tanker being built at SPP Shipbuilding in South Korea, due for delivery next month, for $37.1m. Scorpio did not reveal who it was buying the newbuilding resale from, beyond it was an "unrelated third party". On delivery of the SPP newbuild in September, the vessel will join Scorpio’s existing fleet of 33 tankers, which saw further additions this month with the delivery of two MR product tankers, STI Dama from SPP and STI Olivia from Hyunda...

South Korean shipbuilding giant Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has seen a healthy order intake in the previous month, putting DSME’s 2014 secured orders value at approximately 5.8 billion USD.   DSME’s figures back the estimates that South Korean shipbuilding is entering the recovery mode after it lost its top spot to Chinese rivals.   According to Clarkson’s data cited by Yonhap, South Korean shipbuilders reclaimed their top position after five months as the...

China’s shipping firm E-Sunrise (Group) Co has ordered 10 jack-up platforms from Wuhan Marine Machinery Plant (WMMP), subsidiary of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC).   Construction on the first three jack-up platforms will start this year and the first unit will be delivered 18 months later. Thereafter, the remaining nine units will be delivered at a three-month interval each.   Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.   Guangzhou-headquartered E-Sun...

Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) was the only of Japan’s “big three” shipping companies to report an increase in first quarter profits. NYK reported a net profit of JPY10.2bn ($99.83m) for the first quarter ended 30 June 2014 compared JPY8.57bn a year earlier. Revenues were also up at JPY582.4bn for the first quarter compared to JPY528.5bn in the same period in the previous year. Although profitability showed a slight improvement NYK was negative about the business environment for shipping. “Th...