Liner operator TS Lines has booked two feeder containership newbuildings at Taiwanese shipbuilding group CSBC Corp.
The Hong Kong-headquartered company signed up with the shipyard to build a pair of 1,800-teu newbuildings for delivery in late 2020.
A source familiar with TS Lines said the outfit is paying more than $24m per ship. The newbuildings will be built to the outgoing NOx IMO Tier II emission standards and they will each have 200 reefer plugs.
Officials at TS Lines were not available for comment by the time TradeWinds went to press, while CSBC executives cited contract confidentiality as they declined to disclose their shipyard activities.
Shipbuilding sources point out that TS Lines is familiar with CSBC, as the company has four similar vessels that were built by the yard.
TS Lines ordered the quartet in 2015 and 2016. Last year, CSBC delivered three of the ships — the TS Bangkok, TS Kaoshiung and TS Tokyo (all built 2017) — while the TS Osaka (built 2018) was handed over earlier this year.
TS Lines’ latest order at CSBC is the company’s second newbuilding deal this year. Early in 2018, the company signed up for two 1,000-teu vessels at Japan’s Kyokuyo Shipyard. The pair of newbuildings was reported to cost around $17m each and are due for delivery in the second half of 2019.
Those ships will weigh in at less than 10,000 gt and are specially built for calling at Japanese ports. The weight limit will help TS Lines to save port charges.
Shipbuilding players say TS Lines is still looking to order some 2,800-teu newbuildings if it manages to find the “right yard with the right price”.
“The company is hoping to take advantage of the current low shipbuilding price to increase its owned tonnage,” one shipbuilding source said. “If the shipbuilding price does not suit its budget, it will turn to the charter market for the ships.”
TS Lines was established by TS Chen, a Taiwanese national and the former managing director of Wan Hai Lines. He set up the company in March 2001 to trade within Asia and to India and East Africa. The outfit operates 34 containerships, of which six are owned.
In September last year, TS Lines tapped the secondhand market and bought the Nakai-built, 2,500-teu sub-panamax boxship TS Taichung (ex-Qingdao, built 2007) from Japanese shipowner Doun Kisen for close to $11m — a move perceived as hedging against rising charter rates.
The ship is deployed on a South Korea-China-Indonesia service operated with three vessels that are supplied by South Korean operator KMTC.
