Lomar Shipping has continued to slim down its feeder fleet by hiving off a third vessel to Kotoku Kaiun of Japan.
The 1,774-teu Incres (ex-Filoxenia, built 2020) is one of three Bangkokmax ships the Japanese owner has taken over from UK-based Lomar in recent months.
It is the seventh of 18 vessels of the wide-beam feeder design that Lomar is in the process of selling to German, Japanese and Danish owners.
Kotoku Kaiun is understood to have fixed the Incres with liner operator Hapag-Lloyd for 12 months at $12,000 per day.
Hapag-Lloyd will deploy the vessel on an intra-Asian service between Singapore and Vietnam.
The Incres joins two other ex-Lomar vessels — the Inceda (ex-Panama Trader) and Invicta (ex-Nordic Trader, both built 2019) — which were taken over by Kotoku Kaiun last summer.
Sources suggest the vessels have not been sold but are being transferred as part of a long-term “partnership” between Lomar and the Japanese owner.
Bangkokmax order
Lomar ordered a series of 18 Bangkokmaxes in 2016 and 2017.
Nine were ordered at Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and nine at Cosco Shipyard Group.
Lomar is understood to have five ships in the series scheduled for delivery this year, although the exact dates may be delayed due to the impact of the coronavirus.
Resales of seven ships in the series are understood to have left Lomar with 11 ships in the series on the water or under construction.
Two were sold to German owner Reederei Nord last summer for an estimated $50m enbloc. Nord renamed the 1,774-teu vessels Nordmaas and Nordamstel (both built 2019).
Another two were sold to Maersk, which is understood to have flipped the vessels in a sale to Lepta Shipping of Japan.
Lepta, an affiliate of Mitsui & Co, recently took delivery of the 1,952-teu CNC Mars (built 2020), the second of four vessels ordered at Tsuneishi’s Cebu facilities in the Philippines.
The scrubber-fitted ship has been chartered by CMA CGM for allocation to the intra-Asia fleet, operated by its Singapore-based APL affiliate.
Alphaliner lists Kotoku Kaiun as controlling a fleet of 30 containerships, with capacities ranging from 500 teu to 1,800 teu.
All the ships are chartered by Asian carriers and generally employed in the intra-Asia trades.
