DHT Holdings Orders New VLCC from Hanwha After Record Third-Quarter Earnings

New York-listed shipowner DHT Holdings added a new VLCC vessel to its orderbook at the same time it reported third-quarter results that beat equity analysts' expectations. The announcement was made alongside the release of the company's quarterly earnings.

DHT signed an agreement in November with South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean to build a new VLCC, with delivery scheduled for April 2029. The vessel will be a sister ship to two VLCCs built by Hanwha that joined DHT's fleet this year, in addition to another unit ordered in June at the same yard for delivery in August 2028. With this new order, the company led by Svein Moxnes Harfjeld now has two VLCCs under construction at Hanwha, extending its fleet renewal program through 2029. The contract price was not disclosed.

DHT reported net income of $270.9 million in the third quarter, up from $44.8 million in the same period a year earlier. The quarter's after-tax profit exceeded the total earned throughout all of 2025, which had been $211 million, and the cumulative result for the first nine months of 2026 reached $633.7 million.

For the fourth quarter, the company has booked 68% of its available days in the spot market at an average of $579,900 per day, a figure that continues to rise compared to the $509,100 recorded a month earlier. The combined average between spot and time charter contracts in the fourth quarter is expected to stand at $267,500 per day, compared to $141,300 in the third quarter. At the end of September, DHT operated 23 VLCCs with a combined capacity of approximately 7.18 million deadweight tons, and had secured three-year charters for the DHT Jaguar and the DHT Panther at $75,000 and $100,000 per day, respectively.

Despite these record earnings figures, DHT Holdings' stock fell 20% in a month, surprising analysts. Firms such as Clarksons and Fearnley viewed the decline as a buying opportunity.