Two shipyards are said to be in the running for a container ship newbuilding tender floated by Taiwan’s Yang Ming Marine Transport for a series of neo-panamaxes worth at least $900m.
Shipbuilding sources identified South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Singapore-listed Yangzijiang Shipbuilding as moving forward in the tender process.
Yang Ming wants to build five 15,000 teu to 16,000 teu vessels that will be powered by LNG fuel. It has not specified the type of engine or tanks to be fitted but is looking to take delivery in 2025 or the first half of 2026.
Sources said six or seven shipbuilding companies took part in the tender that was floated in August. They included Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Jiangnan Shipyard and Nippon Shipyard, a joint venture between Imabari Shipbuilding and Japan Marine United.
Officials at HHI and Yangzijiang declined to comment, citing contract confidentiality. Yang Ming officials said the company did not comment on market rumours or speculation, and any information will be announced via and official statement on Taiwan’s market observation post system.
Shipbuilding sources said the delivery dates offered by the yards would be the crux of Yang Ming’s decision in awarding the contract. The shipping company is said to be looking to take delivery of the first vessel in the first half of 2025.
Both HHI and Yangzijiang are sitting on huge orderbooks, with some newbuildings for 2026 delivery.
Yang Ming has been planning to order neo-panamaxes since mid-2021 as under its fleet expansion plans. It said the ships would also help to “strengthen the company’s mid to long-term operational competitiveness and accelerate fleet renewal plan”.
Directors gave the company the go-ahead to pursue the project in April last year and it issued the tender four months later.
Boxship players said Yang Ming’s original newbuildings plan called for 10 to 15 container ship newbuildings to replace vessels it had chartered from Seaspan Corp. But it scaled down the number of ships due to the high capital expenditure. They believed Yang Ming will extending the charter of some of Seaspan’s vessels.
Yang Ming claimed that it will be the first company in Taiwan to own LNG-powered container ships. The company said by using LNG as the fuel, it expects a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with traditional marine fuel.
Yang Ming is one of the partners in the Alliance alongside Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express and HMM.
