Ocean carrier China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) is buying eight new box ships with individual capacities of 13,500 twenty foot-equivalent units (TEUs) for US$934.4 million from a Chinese shipyard as part of its ongoing fleet expansion.
The newbuilds, costing $116.8 million each, will be constructed by Chinese shipyard Shanghai Jiangnan Changxing Shipbuilding Co.
Reports said the first of the eight new ships is slated to be delivered from April 30, 2018 to December 31, 2018. The ships are assigned to serve the Asia-U.S. East Coast trade.
CSCL, the seventh largest shipping line in the world, said the newbuilding investments will be funded through its subsidiary CSCL HK and through bank financing.
MSC Zoe christening
Meanwhile, Swiss box shipping giant Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) said it will christen on August 2 the newbuild MSC Zoe at the Hamburg terminal in Germany, the third of the company’s “Oscar class” series of 19,224-TEU vessels.
The vessel is named after the daughter of MSC Cruises executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago and MSC group CFO Alexa Aponte Vago.
“The christening ceremony is an important moment in the life of the ship and her crew and is an occasion steeped in tradition. It involves the exchange of the vessels crest, breaking a bottle of champagne against the ship’s hull and the ceremonial ribbon cutting on the bridge,” said the company.
The vessel, built in Okpo, South Korea, operates on the SWAN service between Asia and North Europe. It measures about 395.4 meters in length and 59 meters in breadth, and has a gross tonnage of 193,000 tons.
CMA CGM welcomes Vasco de Gama
On the other hand, French box shipping liner CMA CGM took delivery on July 27 of the CMA CGM Vasco de Gama, the group’s largest vessel yet with a capacity of 18,000 TEUs, from the Chinese shipyard China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC).
The newbuild is the third vessel in the group’s six-ship 18,000-TEU series, with a length of 399 meters and width of 54 meters.
Sailing under the UK flag, the ship will call 11 different countries and is positioned on one of the most emblematic lines of the group, the French Asia Line (FAL) which joins Europe to Asia.
“In a globalized economy, this gigantic vessel has the capacity to transport almost 200,000 tons of goods between European, Middle East and Asian markets,” said the company in an official release.
The CMA CGM Zheng He and CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, two other vessels in the 18,000-TEU series ordered from the CSSC shipyards, will be delivered in September and November this year.
