OOCL orders five 23000 TEU container vessels
OOCL has signed newbuilding contracts with shipyards Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co., Ltd. (NACKS) and Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co. Ltd. (DACKS) for five new container vessels, each at a cost of $155.68 million with a nominal capacity of 23000 TEU, and OOCL expects to begin taking delivery of these vessels in the year 2023, the company said in its release.
These five new buildings are part of OOCL ongoing program to introduce large, modern, and fuel-efficient vessels to further strengthen its fleet competitiveness as well as fleet rebalancing by increasing the proportion of the ships OOCL own in the core fleet while a number of vessels leased under long-term charters will be returned to the owners.
Today, OOCL only has six G-Class mega-vessels, each with a capacity of approximately 21000 TEU. These vessels were ordered in March 2015, as the first step in OOCL’s expansion into this class of mega vessels for the Asia-Europe trade. The original plan at that time was to have ordered a second batch of five to six mega vessels. However, this addition to the original order has never happened thus far, first because of the terrible market conditions of 2016, and then throughout 2017-2018 with focus being on the execution of the sale of the OOIL group to COSCO SHIPPING Holdings.
The announcement for this new order for 23000 TEU vessels is indeed this long-awaited second step, and is consistent with OOCL strategic plan for further growth. OOCL will have the potential to independently form a complete loop in the Asia-Europe trade where OOCL intends to deploy them in order to strengthen OOCL’s overall competitive position in the market and improve services to customers. Balancing this expansion, over the next five years OOCL plans to return or dispose of 13 vessels from its fleet, a total of around 76000 TEU, after successful long-term service in OOCL group.
About OOCL
“Orient Overseas Container Line" and “OOCL" are trade names for transportation provided separately by: Orient Overseas Container Line Limited (“OOCLL") and OOCL (Europe) Limited respectively and both are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Orient Overseas (International) Limited, a public company (0316) listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Headquartered in Hong Kong, OOCL is one of the world's largest integrated international container transportation and logistics companies, with over 120 offices in more than 100 major cities. Linking Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Mediterranean, Indian sub-continent, Middle East and Australia/New Zealand, the company offers transportation services to all major east/west trading economies of the world. OOCL is one of the leading international carriers serving China, providing a full range of logistics and transportation services throughout the country. It is also an industry leader in the use of information technology and e-commerce to manage the entire cargo process.
