Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard has secured an order for up to six panamax containership newbuildings, as demand for midsize vessels steps up.
The privately-owned Chinese shipbuilding company is linked to the series of 5,300-teu boxship newbuildings that Navios Maritime Partners unveiled this week.
The Angeliki Frangou-led company has signed up for four firm vessels plus options for two additional ships. The company was reported to be paying $61.6m each for the newbuildings and is slated to take delivery of the firm units between the second half of 2023 and 2024.
Officials at Zhoushan Changhong were not available for comment.
Shipbuilding players said that based on the price tag, they believe the boxships that Navios has ordered will be powered by conventional marine fuels.
Navios said the 5,300-teu containerships are suitable for point-to-point transportation, which the market currently lacks. The company added that the pandemic economy has created a need for this point-to-point transportation, and it saw a good opportunity with good value and went to order the vessels.
A containership expert said there is a strong interest in midsize containerships of between 5,000 teu and 7,000 teu as vessels of this size have not been ordered for a while. He added that the sector needs to replace some of the old ships.
“Liner companies need these midsize boxships for trade services to China, South East Asia and India,” said the containership expert. “The 5,000-teu vessels would be more flexible to trade than the 7,000-teu ships as they can call at more ports due to the size and port facilities at developing countries.”
There are around 28 units of 7,000 teu and 20 ships of 5,500 teu and 5,900 teu, including Navios’ ships, that were ordered this year, according to TradeWinds’ estimates.
Seaspan Corp, CMA CGM, Eastern Pacific Shipping, Sea Consortium, TS Lines, Asiatic Lloyd and Delphis have all ordered midsize boxships.
Seaspan topped the newbuilding spending rankings after signing up for 10 vessels of 7,000 teu and opting to have the containerships powered by LNG. The company was reported to be paying $105m each for the vessels that will be built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
Navios is the third shipping company to have ordered containership newbuildings with Zhejiang-based Zhoushan Changhong this year. Singapore’s Sea Consortium and domestic owner Ruiyang Shipping were the other two.
Sea Consortium signed up for three 3,100-teu vessels, while Ruiyang booked six 2,500-teu newbuildings.
