Greek tonnage provider Cosmoship Management has exercised options for another pair of 1,500TEU ships at CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding.
The options are tied to an initial order inked by the Nikos Savvas-controlled outfit on 25 January. That order was made just a month after Cosmoship took delivery of a similar ship, FSL Colombo, which was one of four sister vessels commissioned in December 2017.
Exercising the options means that Cosmoship has ordered eight 1,500TEU ships from Huangpu Wenchong.
Cosmoship owns 10 container ships that are fixed to liner operators, Korea Marine Transport Company (KMTC Line), Hapag-Lloyd, SITC Container Lines and Sofrana Unilines NZ.
The ongoing recovery in container shipping demand has encouraged owners to build ships, pushing the global orderbook-to-fleet ratio from under 10% in mid-2020 to over17%. With HMM set to order more neo-Panamax ships within H1 2021 these would elevate the ratio to nearly 20%.
Cosmoship’s new orders take Huangpu Wenchong’s orderbook for feeder ships to 19 vessels. Other customers have included TS Lines, Kanway Line, China United Lines, Briese Schiffahrts and Asean Seas Line.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
