The contracts keep rolling in for the world’s largest car carrier owner.
On Friday, Wallenius Wilhelmsen announced its fourth new contract in two weeks — a three-year, $300m agreement with an unspecified “large Swedish manufacturing company”.
The agreement began this month and comes with a two-year extension option.
Chief customer officer Pia Synnerman said the new deal is the continuation of a long-standing partnership.
“Sharing our commitment towards sustainability, as part of the new agreement we are in discussions with the customer on both short and long-term strategic decarbonisation initiatives,” she said.
On Tuesday, Wallenius Wilhelmsen announced two agreements: one for $1bn with a mining and construction manufacturing company speculated to be Caterpillar or Komatsu; and the other a $200m deal with an automotive distributor in the Americas.
Those followed a $290m deal with a South Korean construction equipment company announced last week.
Altogether, Wallenius Wilhelmsen has signed about $1.8bn in new contracts in a market strengthened by higher exports and low ship supply and further firmed by the Red Sea security situation.
Earlier this month, VesselsValue analyst Daniel Nash told TradeWinds that the valuation outfit’s car carrier index was around $123,500 per day for a standard vessel.
That figure could hit $150,000 per day, he said, if the Red Sea issues — which have sent ships rerouting south around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid attacks from Houthi militants in Yemen — persist through the first half.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen has decided to avoid the region, as have two other Norwegian owners, Hoegh Autoliners and Gram Car Carriers.
