Sea Consortium of Singapore has inked another four 7,000-teu containership newbuildings worth about $292m at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) — lifting its neo-panamax order tally at the Chinese yard to eight.
Shipbuilding sources said the latest deal involved optional vessels attached to an initial order at the yard for a quartet of ships signed in April.
Sea Consortium is said to be paying about $73m each for the eight conventionally-fuelled vessels. It is slated to take delivery of two in late 2023 and the others in 2024.
SWS officials declined to comment on the yard’s newbuilding activities, citing contract confidentiality. Sea Consortium did not reply to a request for comment.
Shipbuilding players said X-Press Feeders — a subsidiary of Sea Consortium — will be operating the vessels, which will be largest containerships in its fleet.
X-Press Feeders is also due to take delivery of four neo-panamax boxship newbuildings from New Times Shipbuilding between late 2023 and the first half of 2024.
It has chartered the quartet from Eastern Pacific Shipping for at least five to seven years. The charter rate was not disclosed.
Eastern Pacific's ships will also be powered by conventional fuel. However, the company holds an option to upgrade them to dual-fuel propulsion, to run on fossil or LNG fuel.
Besides the boxships at SWS, Sea Consortium also has three newbuildings of 3,100 teu under construction at Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard for delivery in 2023. It signed up for the trio three months ago for $35m apiece.
Shipbuilding sources said Sea Consortium’s newbuilding contract with Zhoushan Changhong included two options, which the company is likely to declare.
Including Sea Consortium’s four optional newbuildings, SWS’ orderbook backlog for 7,000-teu vessels stands at 12.
Taiwan’s TS Lines has also contracted the state-owned shipyard to build neo-panamax ships.
The intra-Asian liner specialist was recently reported to have doubled its order of the newbuildings to eight, but shipbuilding sources said this was incorrect.
“TS Lines firmed up the newbuildings discussions for four 7,000-teu containerships with Waigaoqiao a few months ago but it delayed the contract signing until [the] end [of] last month to coincide with the company’s 20th anniversary celebration,” one shipbuilding broker said. “It has only placed four vessels.”
