News / Pre-holiday rush for newbuild box ships and a record orderbook

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Liner operators and tonnage providers appear to have made a pre-holiday rush to shipyards before the year ends.

Linerlytica disclosed that Cosco’s massive $9.4bn shipbuilding blitz, announced on 9 December, for 87 vessels from China State Shipbuilding, includes a dozen 18,200 teu ships, four at 1,800 teu, and five of 1,182 teu.

And MSC is poised to add to its fleet, with orders for six 11,400 teu ships at Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard, with options for four more. The Swiss-Italian market leader’s orderbook now exceeds 2.1m teu, with an operated fleet of 7.11m teu, well ahead of its nearest rival Maersk’s 4.6m teu.

Taiwanese liner operator Wan Hai has ordered six 6,000 teu box ships from China’s CSSC Huangpu Wenchong, as it seeks to close the gap on compatriot peer Yang Ming. Each is priced between $75.2m and $82, with delivery expected between 2028 and 2029. The vessels are LNG dual-fuelled, suggesting Wan Hai is having second thoughts about the feasibility of procuring green methanol.

Now the 11th-largest liner operator, Wan Hai does not charter and owns all 117 of its operated ships, a total capacity of 579,480 teu, according to Alphaliner. Its orderbook stands at 390,800 teu.

Yang Ming, ranked two places above Wan Hai, operates capacity of 717,795 teu, comprising 59 owned ships and 39 chartered; it has 18 vessels on order, amounting to 236,660 teu. Its fleet could reach 954,455 teu once its newbuildings are delivered in 2028. Wan Hai’s could bring its fleet to 970,280 teu, meaning it could surpass Yang Ming.

MPC Container Ships has ordered six 3,700 teu ships at Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering, for $292.5m, understood to be for a 10-year charter to Hapag-Lloyd. That carrier is reportedly also chartering four 1,800 teu ships Danaos commissioned at CIMC Sinopacific in November.

SITC Shipowning, the vessel-owning arm of SITC Container Lines, has ordered six 2,700 teu ships from Huanghai Shipbuilding for $229.5m, adding to four similar vessels booked at the shipyard in August. Deliveries are expected between 2028 and 2029.

Tonnage provider V Group, led by Vyron Vasileiadis, has become the latest Greek shipowner to enter the container segment, with orders for two 1,930 teu ships at Huangpu Wenchong. The group, unrelated to a similarly named ship management business, is entering the boxship sector through a newly created unit, OceanV. Priced around $30m each, the ships will be delivered between 2028 and 2029.

Finally, Vietnamese feeder operator Thilogi Shipping, part of Truong Hai Group, appears to be scaling up, booking a 1,800 teu pair at Huangpu Wenchong. Thilogi has a 657 teu ship and one at 294 teu that ply Vietnamese coastal waters.

Shipping consultancy Linerlytica noted that orders for containerships had set a new record this year , with 5.08m teu contracted, exceeding the 4.77m teu set last year.

Linerlytica said in its report this week: “Despite the threat of US actions against Chinese shipbuilding, China’s shipyards still secured the bulk of the contracts this year, accounting for 497 units (79%) and 3.66m teu (72%).”

MB Shipbrokers noted that shipyards managed to raise prices for their remaining 2028 delivery slots, but offering unchanged prices for 2029 deliveries.