Bangladesh’s Karnaphuli Group — the parent of newly formed HR Lines — is wasting no time in building up the fleet of the country's only containership operator.
The Dhaka-based company is said to have struck a newbuilding deal with a Chinese state-owned shipyard for four 2,900-teu ships worth about $152m.
It has also acquired four small containerships ships from Pacific International Lines (PIL).
According to shipbuilding sources, Karnaphuli has contracted Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding to construct the four ships for delivery at the end 2023 and into 2024. They added that the deal does not include any optional vessels.
Officials at Mawei declined to comment on the yard's activities, citing contract confidentiality.
Karnaphuli director Hamdan Hossain Chowdhury said his company was unable to comment on the its newbuildings programme at the present time.
Sources told TradeWinds that the newbuildings will be the largest containerships that Karnaphuli owns.
It is said to be paying between $37m and $38m apiece for the vessels that will comply with the International Maritime Organization's Energy Efficiency Design Index Phase 2 emissions standards.
A shipbuilding source said the price appeared on the low side but that was because "they started the newbuildings discussions long time ago".
Established last year, HR Lines started with two boxships — the 1,550-teu HR Sahare (ex-Kota Wajar) and HR Sarera (ex-Kota Waris, both built 1997) — that it acquired from PIL. They are deployed on a route linking Colombo and Chattogram, known as the Colombo-Chattogram Express (CCE) service.
Shipping sources said Karnaphuli has acquired four more boxships from PIL this year. They are the 1,550-teu HR Aarai (ex-Kota Wangsa) and HR Farha (ex-Kota Wangi, both built 1996), and the 1,454-teu HR Rhea (ex-Kota Anggerik) and HR Hera (ex-Kota Arif, both built 1999).
Chowdhury confirmed the transactions but did not disclose the price paid. He added that the HR Farha and HR Aarai had joined the CCE service, while the HR Rhea and HR Hera are deployed on the service loop between Chattogram, Singapore and Port Klang.
Chowdhury said Kanalphuli had been in shipping since the 1960s, representing liner companies such as PIL, Mediterranean Shipping Co and others.
Chowdhury said: "We have been planning to get into shipowning and operating for a long time as Bangladesh does not have its own liner company. It is all foreign vessels that are calling [in] our waters.
"With Covid disruptions, liner companies are not really maintaining their schedules and our importers and exporters are at the mercy of these foreign vessels. Their schedules were based on bigger pictures and no one was prioritising Bangladeshi cargoes … That made us fast-track things and it has all worked out well."
Karnaphuli was established in 1954 and is one of the most diversified companies in Bangladesh with interests in ports, shipping, logistics, media and publishing, healthcare, real estate, air cargo, and many others.
