Four shipowners co-order vessels in record-breaking VINGA series

Four shipping companies from Sweden, Norway, and Canada see a bright future in the European intermediate tanker market and are ordering four new VINGA ships, taking the Furetank-developed series to 26 vessels.

The new investment was announced last week in conjunction with the naming ceremony for Fure Vasa (pictured), a newly built VINGA vessel that has just arrived in Europe from the shipyard in China.

Two of the vessels will be owned by FureBear, a joint venture between Canadian Algoma Central Corporation and Swedish Furetank, the shipping company that developed the VINGA series together with FKAB Marine Design.

"It is an extraordinary journey to be part of, with a vessel series longer than anyone could have imagined,” said Lars Höglund, CEO of Furetank. “More than a decade after the first order, they remain the most energy-efficient and environmentally friendly vessels in their class internationally. As policy direction and customer needs continue to place greater value on environmental performance in transport, we believe the VINGA design remains well positioned for the future."

One vessel will go to Norwegian shipping company O.H. Meling — marking its first VINGA investment — and one to Swedish Älvtank, already the owner of three VINGA vessels and part of the very first order, delivered in 2018.

The ships will be constructed at the China Merchants Jinling Shipyard in Yangzhou, China, with delivery expected between 2028 and 2029. They will be entered into the Gothia Tanker Alliance and managed commercially by Furetank Chartering.

All four vessels are to be registered under the Swedish flag, meaning the VINGA series will account for almost a fifth of the Swedish merchant fleet, which currently stands at just over 105 vessels.

The VINGA ships are ice class 1A, 17,999 DWT product tankers designed by Furetank together with FKAB Marine Design. They all have dual-fuel capability, run on LBM (liquid biomethane) / LNG or gasoil and are fully equipped for shore power. They are designed with a battery hybrid solution and several innovative features that reduce fuel and energy consumption, resulting in extensively lowered emissions of CO2, sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxide and hazardous particles