Wan Hai Lines has inked orders worth $900m for up to 28 container vessels to be built in Japan and China.
An initial contract was signed today at its headquarters in Taipei for 20 vessels of between 2,038 teu and 3,036 teu.
They will cost around $640m with delivery scheduled from October 2020 and January 2021, according to information relayed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Options for a further eight vessels could increase the value of the order up by a further $269m.
The Taipei-listed carrier, an intra-Asia specialist, signed a TWD 10.3bn ($317m) deal to build eight 3,036-teu containerships at Japan Marine United.
This could be extended by another four ships should options be taken up.
“The ships are for fleet renewal and long-term development,” Wan Hai said in a filing.
Wan Hai also sealed a TWD 9.79bn contract to construct twelve 2,038-teu ships at Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding, part of China State Shipbuilding Corp, with an option to build another four.
The Taiwanese carrier agreed to pay $41.4m each for the 3,036-teu ships and $26.3m apiece for the Bangkokmaxes, the filing said.
The JMU option needs to be exercised within six months and the Huangpu Wenchong option within three months.
Plans by Wan Hai to order a series of ships of 1,900-teu to 2,800-teu were first reported in TradeWinds in June.
The final order is slightly larger than anticipated and involve ships with an extra 100 teu to 300 teu of nominal container capacity.
TradeWinds earlier reported that Wan Hai's newbuildings will be built to the IMO's older Tier II emission standards. The smaller vessels will have 250 reefer plugs each, while the larger ships will each have 400 reefer plugs.
This is JMU's first containership deal this year.
Wenchong, well known for containership construction, has received several contracts this year, including from China Navigation and Cape Shipping.
Separately, Wan Hai said its board approved a proposal to buy 28,000 teu of dry containers for nearly $57m.
The company remained profitable during the first half of this year, even as its bottom line was hit by rising bunker costs.
Wan Hai reported net profits of TWD 406m on operating revenue of TWD 30.9bn in January-June, compared with TWD 675m on revenue of TWD 29.2bn in the same period of last year.
Wan Hai operates a fleet of 72 owned vessels and 24 chartered vessels.
