A Chinese shipyard has sold a feeder boxship for a record low price.
Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard has been trying to hive off two 1,756-teu newbuildings by dropping the price to less than $18m each.
That sets a benchmark low for modern eco-feederships and reflects the difficulties the yard had in finding buyers.
A spokesperson for the shipbuilder confirmed the sale of one of the pair to a Singapore company. It will be delivered next month.
The buyer has an option to purchase the second vessel, which would be delivered in November.
Six-year saga
Broking sources linked the buyer to Wan Hai Lines, but are uncertain whether the Taiwanese outfit is putting equity into the deal.
The sale ends a six-year saga.
The vessels were originally ordered by German owner Reederei Nord at Zhejiang Ouhua Shipbuilding in 2014 for about $26.4m each.
That order was cancelled after Ouhua was declared bankrupt and ceased operations in May 2018.
The shipbuilder was taken over by Changhong in August 2019. It immediately set about completing work on some containerships that were left unfinished at the time of Ouhua’s bankruptcy.
Nine ships were left unbuilt: three 1,756-teu ships for Nord, one of Ouhua’s biggest clients over the years; two 3,100-dwt ships for Arkas Denizcilik; two 5,300-teu ships for Zodiac Maritime; and a vessel for Dutch owner Spliethoff.
Changhong completed two 1,756-teu feeders, one 3,100-teu unit and two 5,300-teu wide-beam vessels.
‘Bargain’ price
It initially tried to sell the two feeder vessels in a package with the 5,300-teu ships, according to brokers. That failed and Changhong subsequently dropped the price on the 1,756-teu feeders, Hull No 712 and Hull No 713.
One broker described the resale price for the vessel as a “bargain”.
The last resales in the sector were done in late 2019, when Nord purchased two 1,774-teu vessels under construction at Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding for UK-based Lomar Shipping. Those vessels were worth about $23.5m, although this has slipped to $19.8m today, according to MSI Horizon.
The low valuations do not bode well for other potential resale candidates in the feeder boxship sector, including four 1,770-teu vessels that Lomar ordered in China three years ago at less than $22m apiece.
But Yangzijiang wants to sell one of the vessels, and delivery of the three others being built by Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry Guangdong has been pushed back.
The falling values of feeder boxships are seen as a reflection of weak earnings.
Charter rates for 1,700-teu vessels are down nearly 25% from a year ago. Six-month charter rates are just $6,366 per day, according to the ConTex index, making them among the poorest performing of any containership category by annual comparisons of earnings.
But the ships completed by Changhong are modern vessels of the Topaz design that command charter rates about 10% higher than older vessels.
They offer a larger cargo intake than older designs or more modern vessels with similar Bangkokmax dimensions.
