Chinese shipyards Sainty Marine, Nantong Mingde Heavy Industry and Nantong Runde Ship Engineering have jointly won a contract to construct seven stainless steel chemical tankers for Celsius Shipping.

The seven 24,600 dwt chemical tankers cost a total of $280m, and they are scheduled for delivery between 2016 to 2017.

As part of the contract, Nantong Mingde Heavy Industry and Nantong Runde Ship Engineering will build the vessels while Sainty Marine will buy them, thereafter Sainty Marine will sell the newbuildings to Celsius Shipping.

Celsius Shipping currently operates six 19,000 dwt stainless steel chemical tankers.

Last month, Nanjing-based Sainty Marine clinched an order to build ten 64,000 dry bulk carriers worth RMB1.7bn ($276.6m) for Bangkok-based Precious Shipping.