SITC Container Lines’ affiliate, SITC Shipowning extended its newbuilding bonanza, announcing a new order from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding for eight more ships, as the firming freight market seems to have encouraged liner operators and tonnage providers to order newbuildings, pushing the global orderbook to almost 20% of the active fleet.
Contracted on 2 June, the orders for four 2,600TEU and four 1,800TEU ships, come less than a week after SITC Shipowning ordered up to ten 1,023TEU vessels at South Korea’s Dae Sun Shipbuilding & Engineering on 27 May.
Commissioned for a total of US$192 million, the container vessels will be built by Yangzijiang’s subsidiary yards, Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding, with delivery scheduled from November 2022 to May 2023.
The price of the 2,600TEU ships is US$27 million each while the 1,800TEU vessels will cost US$21 million each.
Including the earlier orders at Yangzijiang, the SITC group now has 28 newbuildings under construction.
The Hong Kong-listed SITC said in a regulatory filing, “The exercise of the options is to expand the self-owned fleet of container vessels of the group to meet operational requirements.”
SITC Container Lines is now the 16th largest liner operator, with 142,875TEU of total capacity, including 23 chartered vessels.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
