COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong) could secure its first major commercial ship order in 2025. This order adds to the 14-ship portfolio the company has announced since 2024; the portfolio includes 20,000 DWT transshipment dams, 53.4-meter offshore tugboats, 7,999 DWT methanol bunkering vessels, and MR product tankers.
Restructured in 2017, COSCO Guangdong has modern infrastructure covering a total area of 710,000 square meters across its two facilities in Dongguan and Guangzhou. These facilities, with large floating dry docks, slipways, and deep-water berths, serve the construction and repair of a wide range of vessels such as LNG carriers, FSOs, semi-submersible platforms, and container and cement ships.
The company built a total of 80 ships between 2010 and 2020, completing different projects including livestock carriers, dredging and survey vessels, offshore engineering support vessels, and bulk carriers. Initiating a strategic transformation towards high-tech marine and land-based steel structures in 2020, COSCO reactivated its shipbuilding operations as of 2024.
The recent orders are also a critical step for Safety Management Overseas. While the company previously focused on bulk carrier transportation, it is shifting its business model to the tanker sector with two new product tankers. It appears the company has strengthened its team with new managers who have experience in the tanker industry.
Medium-sized tanker orders in the global market remained quite low in 2025. Greek shipowners placed orders for only 8 MR2 tankers in the January-October 2025 period, whereas this number was 30 in 2024. Worldwide, only 40 MR2 tanker orders have been placed so far this year; in 2024, a total of 175 new tankers were built.
