News / Pan Ocean orders first pair of feeders to be built by Daehan Shipbuilding

Source Daehan Shipbuilding

Pan Ocean ordered two 1,000 teu ships from Daehan Shipbuilding on Friday, with options for two more vessels.

The newbuilding price was not disclosed, but VesselsValue indicates that similar ships are now worth approximately $40m.

Pan Ocean is South Korea’s largest dry bulk carrier owner, but is also active in container and tanker shipping.

Recently, it expanded its container shipping operations, in line with the firming market. In this segment, Pan Ocean is ranked 65^th among liner operators, with a modest capacity of 10,448 teu, including five owned vessels.

Pan Ocean re-entered the container business after emerging from court protection in 2015, and concentrates on intra-Asia routes.

In the first half of 2021, revenue increased 57% year on year, to $1.62bn, while net profit soared 150%, to $130.41m. Container shipping revenue was $138m, on which its segment profit tripled year on year, to $28.29m.

Thw newbuilding order is Daehan’s first commission for containerships, as the South Korean mid-sized shipbuilder has focused on tankers. It will start construction in June next year and deliver the ships from May 2023.

Daehan CEO Chung Dae-sung said that, with the recent increase in demand for containerships, it had developed technologies to construct feeder vessels to match the physical constraints of the yard.