Benelux-based reefer specialist Seatrade has inked orders for more high-reefer Bangkokmax container ships at Huanghai Shipbuilding in China.
The company is understood to have exercised options for two more 1,800-teu units with delivery in 2025, lifting the shipowner’s order portfolio from four to six units.
Seatrade, which operates from offices in Antwerp and Groningen, placed an order for the first four 1,800-teu ships in June last year, according to reports.
The vessels are high-reefer variants of the Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute’s Sealion design, and will be equipped with 639 reefer plugs, compared to the 260 to 300 plugs installed on most standard vessels, says Alphaliner.
The first ship in the six-strong series, the Seatrade Chile, is slated for delivery later this year.
The remaining ships are expected to be delivered in 2024 and 2025.
Seatrade group chairman Yntze Buitenwerf could not be contacted but told TradeWinds last year the traditional reefer operator was ordering boxships in the expectation that key ports would be fully containerised within years.
He pointed out that more of the traditional breakbulk ports in countries such as Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador are fast adapting their infrastructure to container terminals.
The newbuildings are expected to be operated on fast, direct and dedicated services, a concept which seeks to provide reefer services on routes that are not covered by the main line container carriers.
Seatrade’s website lists 55 specialised reefer vessels or high-reefer boxships.
That includes five high-reefer container vessels of 2,259 teu to be delivered between 2016 and 2019. These are chartered out to French liner operator CMA CGM.
