China’s Taizhou Kouan Shipbuilding has secured orders for two 2,700-teu container ships from a domestic owner.
The shipyard will build the two vessels for delivery in 2024 for a company called Hainan Shipping, say European brokers.
However, the yard will build one ship each for Hainan Shenga Shipping and Hainan Runqing Shipping, which may be special purpose ownership vehicles, according to Alphaliner.
Newbuildings orders for Chinese-built container ships of this size is the region of $36m per vessel, according to broker estimates.
It is unclear whether the ships will be built to international specifications or whether they will be tailored to the requirements of the Chinese domestic market, said Alphaliner.
The vessels will however be fitted with MAN B&W 6S60ME-C10 main engines which points towards tonnage designed for the international trades, the analyst added.
The vessels will be 187.6m long and 35.2m (14 rows) wide.
Active buyers
Container ship newbuild contracting in the first quarter of the year amounted to 37 ships of 0.4m teu, according to Clarkson estimates.
That is slightly higher than the quarterly average of 0.3m teu for the previous decade, the shipbroker added.
Most orders have been for larger container ships segment, while orders for smaller vessels have been limited to niche sectors.
That includes an order for two 730-teu feeder container ships ordered by Dutch operator Samskip at India’s Cochin Shipyard to be run on hydrogen with a diesel back-up.
Chinese operators have been active in the second-hand market and have often been looking to secure tonnage for new services trading to Russia.
