News / Cosco request for 10 neo-panamaxes pushes orderbook to 21% of the fleet

The ship-buying bonanza has continued with news of another order, this time for 10 neo-panamax vessels for Cosco Ship Holdings (CSH) from its sister company Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry (Yangzhou), in a $1.5bn deal.

The order, for six 14,092 teu vessels at $146m each and four of 16,180 teu at $155m each, will see the ships delivered to CSH from the end of 2023 through to the second half of 2025.

The company said, in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing, that the newbuilding orders were part of its 14th five year plan, and approximately 40% of the costs would be financed internally, with the rest via bank loans.

CSH announced the newbuilding orders a week after revealing that, amid the rocketing freight market, its H1 21 net profit was expected to swell by 46 times, year on year, to $5.73bn.

The CSH order has pushed the orderbook-to-fleet ratio to around 21%, according to Clarksons’ data.

The amount CSH is paying for the newbuildings indicates that shipyards have raised prices by as much as 20% from two months ago. Rising steel costs and the rush to build new box ships amid the strong freight market have pushed vessel prices up, prompting shipowners to order to pre-empt more price increases and secure earlier delivery slots.

CSH, holding company for Cosco Shipping Lines and Orient Overseas International, is the third-largest liner operator, with a total capacity of 3.02m teu on 181 owned ships and 317 chartered vessels.