Maersk Line has confirmed lease-financing deals for 13 feeder containerships to be built at Chinese and Japanese yards for its intra-Asia network.
The Danish liner giant said it will charter a series of 2,200-teu vessels that will be owned and fully financed by third-party vessel leasing companies.
Industry sources said Maersk Line is teaming up with ICBC Financial Leasing on an order for five feederships that the AP Moller-Maersk subsidiary has been planning to commission at Jiangnan Shipyard in China.
Another five will be built at Imabari Shipbuilding in Japan and the remaining three at Zhoushan Changhong in China, the liner company confirmed. The leasing companies involved in these deals are not known.
Maersk Line added that deliveries are scheduled from the fourth quarter of 2020 until the first half of 2021.
The feeders are designed and optimised for operational profiles, for which optimal vessels are not available in the market
Peter Lund
Shipbuilding sources said ICBC, which could not be reached for comment, is paying a price on the "high $20m" range — possible $27m to $28m — for the 2,200-teu vessels.
Details of the charter period and rate have not been disclosed.
Ongoing optimisation
Peter Lund, vice president and head of chartering at AP Moller-Maersk, confirmed the orders are “part of the ongoing optimisation and renewal of our feeder fleet portfolio”.
Maersk Line operates about 250 vessels of less than 3,000 teu and most are operated under regional brand Sealand. More than 20 are owned vessels aged about 20 years old.
“The feeders are designed and optimised for operational profiles, for which optimal vessels are not available in the market,” Lund said.
“Upon delivery, they will operate in Sealand’s intra-Asia network and replace older, less efficient vessels in our chartered fleet, as well as owned vessels reaching end of lifetime in the next years.”
Maersk Line is the latest company to join the feedership bandwagon. Other shipping companies sitting on such orders include Evergreen Marine, Wan Hai Lines, Sea Consortium and SITC International Holdings.
Maersk Line has pledged to limit its expansion in smaller containerships for the rest of the year.
Static fleet
“We will make no new orders of large vessels before 2020, at the earliest,” Lund said. “We reiterate our target to keep fleet capacity around four million teu in 2019."
ICBC’s newbuilding deal is the second feeder containership order at Jiangnan this year.
In January, Atlantic Geneva commissioned the Shanghai-based shipyard to build four 2,400-teu newbuildings for delivery in 2021. South Korea’s Sinokor Merchant Marine was reported to have chartered the quartet.
Meanwhile, Jiangnan is expecting to land its first dual-fuelled containership order. CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping Leasing, the leasing arm of China State Shipbuilding Corp, is gearing up to strike a deal with the shipyard to construct five 15,000-teu vessels. The boxships have long-term charters from French liner company CMA CGM.
CMA CGM declined to comment on the prospective order.
European sources said the deal is scheduled to be signed soon by a top French and Chinese political delegation.
The cost of the 15,000-teu ships has not been disclosed but brokers estimate the dual-fuelled vessels to be priced at about $130m each.
Jiangnan is slated to deliver them from 2021.
Bob Rust contributed to this story
This story has been amended since publication to reflect that the price for the containership is estimated to be in the "high $20m" range.
