Nick Savvas-led Cosmoship Management conducted a textbook manoeuvre that allowed the Greek owner to replace two existing container ships in his orderbook with larger vessels, practically for free.
The Piraeus-based company inked a pair of 1,800-teu feeder container ships at China’s Yangzijiang Shipbuilding for about $32m each.
This comes just a few weeks after Savvas agreed to sell at about the same price a pair of 1,500-teu ships he had already on order at Guangzhou Huangu.
The deals, related by shipbuilding and ship management sources in Greece and the Far East, confirm Savvas's reputation for canny dealmaking in bulkers and container ships.
The Greek owner's new deal for two firm and two optional newbuildings are his first cooperation with Jiangsu-based Yangzijiang, which thus beefs up its order backlog to 137 vessels.
Yangzijiang is scheduled to deliver Cosmoship’s firm units between the end of 2023 and the second quarter of 2024.
They will be built at Jiangsu Yangzi Changbo Shipyard — one of three shipbuilding facilities in Yangzijiang — to the Phase-3 standards of the International Maritime Organization’s Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI).
The two 1,500-teu newbuildings under Hull Nos 2415 and 2416, which Savvas agreed to sell to Far Eastern interests at $31.5m each, had been ordered to Phase-3 standards as well and are due for delivery in 2022 and 2023.
The Greek owner had contracted them early last year at between $22m and $23m each.
Busy with boxships
Cosmoship’s new boxship deal at Yangzijiang is the second newbuilding contract that the Greek company inked this year.
In January, Savvas commissioned South Korea’s Dae Sun Shipbuilding & Engineering to build two 1,000-teu vessels. The feeder ships, due in 2023 and 2024 reportedly cost him close to $22m each.
Cosmoship is the second outfit to contract container ship newbuildings at Yangzijiang this month.
The first was Pacific International Lines of Singapore, which signed up for four LNG dual-fuelled 8,000-teu newbuildings at the yard, for delivery from 2025.
Yangzijiang said PIL’s container ships will be the first vessels to be built by the shipyard with the GTT Mark III membrane containment tank system. The ships will also be ammonia-ready.
PIL was reported to be paying around $120m each for the LNG dual-fuel neo-panamax vessels.
Listed on the Singapore Exchange, Yangzijiang is China’s largest privately-owned shipyard. The shipyard said the total value of its orderbook of 137 vessels is worth$8.15bn. It’s shipbuilding berth is booked till mid-2025.
