South Korea’s Sinokor Merchant Marine is said to have struck a newbuilding contract with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) for four feeder-size container ship newbuildings.
Shipbuilding sources said the low-profile shipping company has booked four firm 2,500-teu vessels worth more than $160m for delivery between the second half of 2023 and end of 2024.
The sources identified Sinokor to be the company behind the 2,500-teu newbuilding quartet that Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co (KSOE) announced on Monday.
KSOE is a unit of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings. It controls Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries and HMD.
The shipbuilding group said it had secured orders for nine newbuildings — eight container ships and one LNG carrier — worth KRW 1.33bn ($1.1bn) in total from three separate companies. AP Moller-Maersk ordered four methanol-fuelled 16,000-teu boxships and Japan's NYK Line signed up for one 174,000-cbm LNG carrier.
Officials at HMD declined to confirm the buyer’s identity for the 2,500-teu newbuildings, citing contract confidentiality. Sinokor did not respond to requests for confirmation or comment.
Brokers believe Sinokor is paying more than $40m each for the vessels.
With the 2,500-teu vessel order, Sinokor now has 16 boxship newbuildings booked at HMD. The other 12 ships are Bangkokmaxes of 1,800 teu that were ordered last year at a reported price of between $28m and $30m per ship.
HMD is slated to deliver four of the 1,800-teu newbuildings during the second half of this year and the remaining in 2023.
Online database VesselsValue shows Sinokor also has four 2,400-teu newbuildings under construction at China's Jiangnan Shipyard for delivery this year. But a source close to Jiangnan said the yard is not building any feeder ships for the South Korean owner.
Sinokor is the second company to have ordered container ships with HMD this year. Evangelos Marinakis' privately owned Capital Maritime & Trading was the first.
The Greek shipping company signed up for three LNG-ready 1,800-teu ships worth $96m with the Ulsan-based shipyard. The deal lifts the total number of feeder-size vessels that it has booked at HMD to nine.
Online database VesselsValue shows HMD is sitting on an orderbook of 138 newbuildings, with MR tankers making the bulk of the orders.
HMD has set an order target of $3.6bn for 2022 — 2.9% higher than last year's $3.5bn target. In 2021, it secured about 100 newbuildings worth around $4.8bn, exceeding its annual target by about 37%.
