Greek owner Danaos Corp is adding to its newbuilding tally by placing its seventh neo-panamax container ship order with a Chinese yard.
The New York-listed company has ordered an extra 8,258-teu container vessel at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding for delivery in 2027.
The vessel adds to six others in the series the shipowner currently has on order.
Those ships have been chartered to Hapag-Lloyd on delivery in 2026 and 2027, but it is unclear whether the seventh vessel will also join the German liner operator.
The latest order comes as the company confirmed a move for four 9,200-teu container vessels to be built at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, as TradeWinds reported this week.
Three have expected deliveries in 2027 and one vessel in 2028.
Charter revenues
Danaos said the five newbuildings it ordered this week would add charters that will contribute $616m to its contracted revenue backlog.
That includes about $203m of forward two-year charter fixtures for nine of its existing vessels.
It also includes about $413m of fixtures for the four 9,200-teu and one 8258-teu newbuildings.
The five newbuilding orders cost $509m in total with an average charter duration of 4.8 years.
The five vessels will be methanol fuel-ready and fitted with open-loop scrubbers.
Danaos has 16 container vessels under construction.
Three newbuildings will be delivered this year, two ships in 2025, three units in 2026, seven ships in 2027 and one vessel in 2028.
Danaos chief executive John Coustas said:“We have now secured multi-year charters for all the vessels in our orderbook while we have also made significant additions to the contracted revenue backlog of our existing fleet and have further improved earnings and cash flow visibility.”
