Industry sources say Turkey’s Ditas Shipping has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with HHI for a pair of 158,000-dwt suezmaxes for delivery in 2018. They add that Ditas plans to use the tankers to ship crude oil from Iran to Turkey.

“This is probably the first newbuilding deal that is related to Iran,” said one player. “Ditas started working on this project last year and the company specified it only wants to work with South Korean major shipbuilders such as HHI and Samsung Heavy Industries.”

HHI