Chinese shipyard Jiangsu New Yangzijiang has enjoyed a rush of container shipping lines exercising options for newbuilds – in the past few weeks eight options have been exercised by a range of ship owners.
Thailand-headquartered Regional Container Lines has exercised two more 1,688 teu Bangkokmax feeders from Jiangsu New Yangzijiang, bringing commitments to four on order. Meanwhile, Rickmers doubled its commitments from the builder to four 1,900 teu units for delivery in 2018. The two owners will pay US$23 million and US$25 million per ship respectively.
This same Chinese builder increased its orderbook for Pacific International Lines (PIL) to 16 x 11,800 teu vessels by adding a further four. The vessels are thought to be priced at US$85 million apiece. The PIL vessels will all be powered by Wartsila 8X92 engines.
An analyst told CST: “Concentration on in-demand feeder sizes and the niche area of 11,000 teu range, where hardly any vessels feature, is paying dividends for this builder.”
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