Eyal Ofer's Zodiac Maritime has secured long-term employment with a leading liner operator for the last of its neo-panamax containership newbuildings.
The UK-based shipowner has secured the business for four of its 14,952-teu vessels with Japanese liner operator Ocean Network Express (ONE).
The deal is believed to involve lengthy charters of up to seven years at rates likely to be in excess of $40,000 per day, according to broker estimates.
The first of the ships, the 14,952-teu Zenith Lumos (built 2020), is slated for delivery from Hyundai Heavy Industries later this month.
The vessel is undergoing sea trials, but will be introduced onto services operated by ONE and its alliance partners between Asia and the Mediterranean from 20 September, according to Alphaliner.
ONE — a joint venture between NYK Line, K Line and MOL — will subsequently be taking into operation the three sisterships: Tahoe, Cortina and Telluride. These are scheduled for delivery by the first quarter of next year.
Fixtures with MSC
The four neo-panamax containerships were ordered by Zodiac in August 2018.
They are part of a series of 13 newbuildings originally ordered by Zodiac with the Seoul-listed shipbuilder.
Nine of the vessels have already secured charters with Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC).
That includes five slightly smaller vessels that Zodiac ordered at HHI in November 2017.
These are the 14,300-teu MSC Josseline, MSC Jewel, MSC Faith, MSC Kelly and MSC Kanako (all built 2019).
They were the first of Zodiac's vessels with dual-fuel engines and Hyundai-designed scrubbers.
Zodiac increased the order in mid-2018 when it exercised options for eight slightly larger vessels of 14,952 teu.
Four of those ships secured long-term charters with MSC earlier this year.
The last of those four vessels was the 14,952-teu MSC Auriga (built 2020), which was delivered in July.
Newbuilding question-mark?
The decision by ONE to charter a series of neo-panamax vessels raise more questions about its touted newbuilding plans.
In May, TradeWinds reported that the Japanese line had pushed back talks with yards for a possible order of six 23,000-teu vessels for delivery from mid-2022.
That emerged after its alliance partner Hapag-Lloyd stopped work for a similar prospective newbuilding order.
ONE is a member of THE Alliance, along with Yang Ming Marine Transport, HMM and Hapag-Lloyd.
ONE did not respond to requests for comment.
But the Japanese line recently reported a big jump in profits during the first quarter of its fiscal year, despite the global Covid-19 pandemic.
