Boxship owner Seaspan Corp’s appetite for new boxships continues to grow. Having splashed out $4.6bn on 37 big containership newbuildings since December, the tonnage supplier is set to spend another $1.46bn on a further 20 new vessels.

But this time it has switched its focus from big boxships to units of 7,000 teu, according to shipping sources.

They added that neo-panamaxes are becoming increasingly popular in trades from Far East Asia to the Middle East Gulf as well as north-south trades, and that orders for the vessel size is expected to rise.

Seaspan, the containership owning arm of US-listed Atlas Corp, is said to have approached seven to eight shipyards in China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Among them were Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, New Times Shipbuilding, Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and CSBC.

“Seaspan wants to order 20 ships and no single shipyard is able to build all of them,” a shipping source said. “It needs to split the newbuildings between a few shipyards.”

Sources suggest that Hong Kong-headquartered Seaspan will have to pay about $73m apiece for the vessels due to rising newbuilding prices that some brokers describe as “moving targets”.

“Newbuilding prices are surging due to rising material costs and market forces,” a shipbuilding broker said.

“The number of shipyards has reduced due to consolidation and there is less competition in driving prices down. We saw newbuilding prices went up by 5% over the last four weeks.”

Containership experts are not surprised at Seaspan’s interest in the vessel size.

“The 7,000-teu ships will be the new flexible vessel going forward, replacing existing 4,000-teu and 5,000-teu boxships,” a boxship source said. “These 7,000-teu containerships can be used within Far East Asia to Persian Gulf as well as the north-south trades.”

“It is expected that one will see a huge order flow for that size [7,000 teu] in the coming weeks or months as various owners and operators are looking to own them.”

According to VesselsValue, Seaspan’s orderbook consists of 35 neo-panamax containerships of between 12,000 teu and 15,500 teu, booked at Yangzijiang, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, Jiangnan Shipyard and SHI.

It also has two 24,000-teu ultra-large boxships on order at Yangzijiang.

The total value of these 37 newbuildings is $4.6bn.

Shipping sources said Seaspan has already lined up charter contracts for most of the newbuildings with Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) employing the majority of the newbuildings.

“MSC is also looking for 7,000-teu ships and there is a good chance that some of the newbuildings that Seaspan is going to order will be fixed to the liner company,” the shipping source said.