Greek owner Euroseas has re-fixed one of its large feeder container ships at a massively improved rate over three years.

The Nasdaq-listed company said the 2,788-teu EM Astoria (built 2004) has been fixed for between 36 and 38 months at $65,000 per day over the first year.

This will fall to $50,000 per day in the second 12 months and $20,000 per day for the rest of the term.

The ship is coming off a previous charter in February at only $18,650 per day.

The charterer has not been named.

The average day rate for the new deal is around $45,000.

Chief executive Aristides Pittas said the rate is on average about two-and-a-half times better than the current deal, with the payments heavily front-loaded.

"The new charter secures us with a minimum of $47m of contracted revenues and is expected to make a total Ebitda contribution in excess of $36m over the three years of the contract," he added.

More than $19m of this profit should come in the first year.

The deal increases the company's charter coverage to about 92% for 2022, more than 60% for 2023 and about 45% for 2024.

"Continuing healthy container ship markets and our high contract coverage are to generate significant cash flow for us over the next two to three years," Pittas said.

"We plan to use this cash flow for selective investments to grow and modernise the company or reward shareholders either through dividends or share buybacks as our board of directors should determine."

In December, Euroseas locked in two other ships at significantly improved rates.

The 2,556-teu Evridiki G and EM Corfu (both built 2011) were each fixed at $40,000 per day for at least three years, starting in February 2022.

Germany's MPC Container Ships said earlier on Wednesday that charterers are seeking longer and longer terms at better rates to secure scarce tonnage.