France’s CMA CGM has joined a growing number of containership operators investing in tonnage by directly ordering newbuildings with shipyards.
China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) disclosed that the liner giant has contracted three state-owned shipyards to build 22 containerships.
The orders involve 12 dual-fuel neo-panamax boxships and 10 panamax vessels.
"This order aims at accommodating market growth," the Marseilles-based liner giant said.
None of the 22 ships are optional vessels, a shipbuilding market source said. It is not known whether CMA CGM has options to add more ships to the contracts.
CSSC said Jiangnan Shipyard will build six 15,000-teu vessels for CMA CGM, while Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding will construct six 13,000-teu ships for the buyer. The neo-panamaxes will be able to run on LNG and conventional fuel.
That comes after sources said in March that the two shipyards were in talks with CMA CGM for a series of 13,000-teu newbuildings worth a combined $1.74bn.
Meanwhile, CSSC said its Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry will build 10 smaller, 5,500-teu newbuildings that will run on very low-sulphur fuel oil.
The company did not disclose the price for the containerships but shipping sources estimated the combined value of the three newbuilding contracts to be in the region of $2.3bn. The shipyards are scheduled to deliver the vessels in 2023 and 2024.
The group said the design of the neo-panamax containerships was developed by its subsidiary 708 Research Institute. The newbuildings will be built with membrane-type cargo tanks fitted with GTT Mark III flex cargo-containment systems and the vessels will be equipped with WinGD main engines.
Shipping sources said CMA CGM is paying slightly more than $150m each for the 15,000-teu vessels and about $130m per ship for the 13,000-teu boxships.
Design of the 5,500-teu newbuildings was carried out by Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute. The panamax boxships, with a 40-metre beam, will be equipped with about 800 reefer plugs and will use WinGD’s main engine.
Shipping sources said the 5,500-teu newbuildings are the 10 vessels that were being discussed under the code-name “Project Slade”.
“The 10 ships were supposed to be equally split between Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and Qingdao Beihai, but CMA CGM decided to have all the vessels built by Qingdao Beihai as it was offered a special price by CSSC,” said a shipbuilding source.
TradeWinds learned that CMA CGM is paying around $63m apiece for the panamax containerships. The high shipbuilding price reflects the large number of reefer plugs equipped on the ships.
CMA CGM is the second company to have contracted a huge volume of newbuildings at CSSC in April. Rival Mediterranean Shipping Co signed up for 13 neo-panamax vessels worth up to $1.63bn early in the month.
The Geneva-based liner company placed orders for seven 16,000-teu vessels at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co and six similar boxships at Guangzhou Shipyard International for delivery in 2023 and 2024. The containerships will be powered by conventional fuel but will be LNG-ready.
CSSC disclosed that the total value of the 13 newbuildings was more than $1.52bn.
This story has been amend since publication to reflect that the 5,500-teu ships will run on very-low sulphur fuel oil.
