Evangelos Marinakis' privately owned Capital Maritime & Trading has penned a newbuilding contract worth $96m with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD).

Shipbuilding sources identified the owner as behind an order for three 1,800-teu boxships that Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) disclosed earlier this week.

The deal lifts to nine the total number of 1,800-teu newbuildings the outfit has booked at HMD. Its earlier six vessels were ordered last year.

It also brings the company’s total spend on the vessel type at the South Korean shipyard to $285m.

HMD officials declined to confirm the owner's identity, citing contract confidentiality.

Sources said the deal was a new contract as opposed to Capital Maritime exercising options. The vessels are said to be costing $32m each — $500,000 per ship more than the earlier sextet.

It is not known if Capital Maritime’s latest contract with HMD involved any options.

Sources said the vessel specification of Capital Maritime's latest newbuildings is the same as the earlier ones — gearless and built to comply with the International Maritime Organization's Tier III NOx emissions standards.

The feeder boxships will also be readied to run on LNG and alternative maritime power (AMP). AMP, also known as "cold ironing", is a technology that helps reduce air pollution from ships by using electric shore power while at port.

HMD is scheduled to deliver all of the nine newbuildings in 2023.

Capital Maritime's latest order adds to a series of newbuilding moves by Marinakis over the past two years.

The company has six 50,000-dwt product carriers under construction at HMD sister yard Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding. The LNG dual-fuel-ready MR tankers, which were reported to cost about $38m each, are slated to be delivered between the end of 2022 and November 2023.

Capital Maritime also has 10 neo-panamax newbuildings on order at two South Korean shipyards — four at Samsung Heavy Industries and six at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries — for 2022 and 2023 delivery.

The Greek owner was reported to have sold the four newbuildings at SHI to Wan Hai Lines for $445.6m, locking in nearly $32m in profit.

On the sale-and-purchase front, Capital Maritime was reported to have sold two 3,800-teu boxships for an en-bloc price of $109m to AP Moller-Maersk.

The two high-reefer vessels belonged to a series of six ships that Capital Maritime acquired in early 2021 from Rickmers Reederei.

The Greek owner was believed to have made a significant profit from the sales, as the value of the panamax vessels has quadrupled from about $15m per ship to close to $60m each, according to VesselsValue.

HMD is one of the three shipyards under the umbrella of KSOE. The other two are Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.

KSOE has set an order target of $17.4bn for 2022. That is 17% higher than last year’s $14.9bn target. It secured $22.8bn-worth of orders in 2021, exceeding its annual target by about 53%.