Containership owner Seaspan Corp is paying $146m in cash to acquire a pair of neo-panamax vessels.

Two 13,000-teu boxships, built in 2010 and 2011, will operate under long-term charters when they are delivered in the third quarter of the year, the company said.

They will be financed from additional borrowings as well as cash on hand.

The purchases leave Seaspan, the containership division of New York-listed Atlas Corp, with a fleet of 125 vessels.

Chief executive Bing Chen said that includes 13 containerships with long-term charters acquired by the company in the past year.

The vessels are chartered to three different liner operators.

$1bn spree

TradeWinds estimates that Seaspan has spent $926m to purchase 13 ships since September 2019.

In February, the shipowner acquired four 11,923-teu vessels previously operated by Singapore-based Pacific International Line (PIL) for a $367m, or $91.75m each.

Those are the 11,923-teu Seaspan Falcon, Seaspan Harrier and Seaspan Raptor (all built 2018) as well as the Seaspan Osprey (built 2017).

They have been chartered to Japan's Ocean Network Express (ONE), which uses the ships on its Asia-US East Coast service.

Prior to that, Seaspan acquired another six containerships from Chinese leasing companies.

The six ships were purchased in November 2019 for $380m and remain on long-term charter to French liner operator CMA CGM.

These include the 10,798-teu APL Southampton, APL Paris and APL Dublin (all built 2012).

The three others are the 9,326-teu APL Vancouver and APL New York (both built 2013) and 9,326-teu APL Mexico City (built 2014).

In September 2019, Seaspan also acquired the 9,600-teu Seaspan Adonis (built 2010) for a reported $33m.

The acquisitions helped consolidate Seaspan's position as the largest tonnage provider in the containership sector.