Minsheng Financial Leasing (MSFL) has ordered a pair of 16,000TEU container ships from Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC), the latter’s parent China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) announced on 7 May.
While MSFL, the leasing unit of China Minsheng Bank, would only state that the ships will be bareboat-chartered to a European liner operator, CSSC said that the vessels are sister units of an earlier 13-ship order by Mediterranean Shipping Company.
CSSC’s deputy general manager Sun Wei, China Minsheng Bank vice president Shi Jie, MSFL’s CEO Sun Xiangge and China Shipbuilding Trading’s chairman Li Hongtao, were among attendees at the signing ceremony.
These container ships are designed by CSSC’s 708th Research Institute and will be installed with the group’s proprietary WinGD main engine. The ships, each with 366m length and a 51m width, will be installed with main engines under CSSC’s proprietary WinGD brand, in addition scrubbers and LNG bunker tanks will be installed.
The newbuilding price is estimated to be around US$125 million per vessel and delivery is expected between 2023 and 2024.
The remarkable recovery in container shipping demand that began in Q3 2020 and continues into H1 2021 has encouraged liner operators and tonnage providers to build more ships, pushing the global orderbook-to-fleet ratio from under 10% in mid-2020 to almost 17% now.
The officials described the newbuilding order as another example of the “China One-Stop” scheme of ships being built and financed in China, and that CSSC and MSFL will play to their strengths to facilitate the long-term development of the shipbuilding and finance industry. Just days before the newbuilding order, China Minsheng Bank, MSFL and DSIC signed a co-operation framework agreement.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
