Yang Ming Marine Transport is ordering up to 14 feeder containerships of 2,800 teu worth more than $500m from Taiwan compatriot shipbuilder CSBC.
Shipbuilding sources said Japan’s Imabari Shipbuilding and South Korea’s Hyundai Mipo Dockyard had also been competing for the order for 10 firm vessels plus four options.
Yang Ming confirmed to TradeWinds that it was "acquiring" 10 containerships of 2,800 teu each, but declined to comment on the options.
"Related formalities are still ongoing and we are not at liberty to make any comment due to [a] confidentiality agreement with committed parties," Yang Ming said.
Fleet renewal
The Taiwanese liner operator is the latest Asian player to start renewing its feeder fleet. In recent months, both Wan Hai Lines and Evergreen have also been in the market.
Executives at CSBC declined to comment on its activities, also citing contract confidentiality.
Sources added that the official signing of the contract between Yang Ming and CSBC will take place this month.
“These 2,800-teu vessels will be owned by Yang Ming and the liner company has opted for high-specification containerships,” said one shipbuilding source, adding that it is paying more than $2m extra for the high-spec vessels.
“The newbuildings are IMO Tier II-compliant and will be used on the intra-Asia trade.”
TradeWinds understands that Yang Ming is paying between $37m and $38m each for the feederships, which will be fitted with 300 reefer plugs. It has an option to fit them with scrubbers at a later date.
This is the third order CSBC has bagged this year. It has already sealed a $92.4m contract for a pair of 208,000-dwt newcastlemax bulkers from Taiwan's China Steel Express and was awarded a deal by Hong Kong liner operator TS Lines for a pair of Tier III feeder boxships.
Some warned, however, that ordering vessels with Tier II engines could make them obsolete if China tightens its environmental regulations.
The China Steel bulkers are booked for delivery in the first half of 2020. TS Lines' ships, fitted with 200 reefer plugs, will also be delivered that year.
Charter contracts
Last month, Yang Ming signed charter contracts on five 12,000-teu neo-panamax containership newbuildings with Costamare of Greece and on five vessels of 11,000 teu with Japan’s Shoei Kisen.
Costamare’s vessels will be constructed by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding; Shoei’s by Imabari Shipbuilding. Deliveries of the IMO Tier III-compliant boxships are set from the second quarter of 2020 through to the third quarter of 2021.
Yang Ming said the charter of the neo-panamaxes is aimed at improving its service operations as well as long-term development and modernisation of its fleet.
Details of the charter contracts have not been disclosed, but boxship market players said Yang Ming fixed the vessels for at least five years at $30,000 per day. Costamare was reported to have paid around $85m each for the newbuildings.
Yang Ming operates a fleet of 106 containerships with a combined capacity of more than 600,000 teu.
