Evergreen Marine Corp is asking shipowners and yards for offers on a slew of ultra-large, scrubber-fitted boxships worth about $1.7bn as it looks to the company’s next generation of vessels.
Brokers said the Taiwanese line has circulated a time-charter tender for up to nine boxship newbuildings of around 23,000 teu each, plus two optional vessel slots.
Asia-Europe service
They said the company has gone out to the market because its favoured yard, Japan's Imabari Shipbuilding, and its shipowning arm, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, are unable to meet all of Evergreen's required delivery dates for the ships.
Japan Marine United is also believed to be in the frame for the tender, as are South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries, DSME and Samsung Heavy Industries.
Also thought to be in the running are China's Jiangnan Shipyard, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group.
Brokers said three Japanese owners, Costamare, Zodiac Maritime, Seaspan and an unnamed Greek company are among the shipowners bidding on the long-term time-charter business for the ships.
They said Chinese yards are pricing the ships in the region of $150m, with their South Korean counterparts offering in at nearer to $160m.
Evergreen is understood to need the vessels to have sufficient tonnage to compete on its Asia-Europe service.
Big boxship owners and operators have been weighing up their fuelling choices to meet the IMO’s 2020 tougher emissions requirements for their next newbuildings
Offers from the shipyards are due by mid-July.
The liner operator already has eight firm containership newbuildings of 20,150 teu on order at Imabari Shipbuilding against charters from Shoei Kisen Kaisha.
Juggling berth space
In the past, Evergreen has been close to Japanese yards and traders but more recently has extended its fleet-renewal plans to include South Korean and Chinese shipbuilders.
Brokers said South Korea’s big three yards will likely be juggling berth space for large containerships with the anticipated business for LNG project business — specifically that from Qatargas, Mozambique LNG and Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2.
Newbuilding players suggest the Evergreen vessels are likely to be scheduled for delivery slots in 2022.
Big boxship owners and operators have been weighing up their fuelling choices to meet the IMO’s 2020 tougher emissions requirements for their next newbuildings, with several expected to move on tonnage in the second half of this year.
All three options open to them have issues. There are concerns about the lifespan of scrubbers and the future cost and availability of heavy fuel oil. Similar questions on price and supply dog 2020-compliant low-sulphur fuel oil, while opting for a dual-fuel propulsion system and LNG-fuelling is estimated to add up to $20m to the capital expenditure on a vessel, compared with up to $3m to $5m-plus for a scrubber.
While CMA CGM has opted for dual-fuelling on its ultra-large containerships, others such as Hapag-Lloyd are checking out all three options: retrofitting an LNG-ready vessel, fitting a scrubber and trialling low-sulphur fuel oil.
'Nevergreen'
But Evergreen seems keen to take the scrubber route and is not believed to be asking for other options from shipbuilders.
The move led one broker to dub the Taiwanese company “Nevergreen”, saying scrubbers are an excellent short to medium-term fix, but not a long-term environmental or economic solution for vessels with large bunker consumption.
“At a service speed of 22 knots, vessels of this size burn well in excess of 200 tonnes per day of bunkers,” Affinity (Shipping) said.
“We calculate that opting for heavy fuel oil over LNG would result in an additional 150 tonnes of CO2 emissions per vessel per day — without considering the additional SOx, NOx and particulates.”
