Cosco Shipping plans to raise more than $2 billion in a share sale that will pay for 20 new container vessels, according to the carrier’s filing to the Hong Kong Exchange.
The Chinese container shipping line, the world’s fourth biggest by container vessel capacity, paid $140 million each for the ultra large container vessels that are already under construction at Chinese shipyards.
Cosco reported that the deliveries would take place over 2018 and 2019, and comprise of six 21,237 TEU capacity ships, five at 20,119 TEU, five at 13,800 TEU and four at 14,568 TEU.
In its announcement, Cosco said that the new ships allow it to become more competitive and “further capitalize on the advantages of the large size and scale of its container fleet”.
Lars Jensen, CEO, SeaIntelligence, recently forecasted the industry’s developments as far into the future as 2025 in his 'Liner Shipping in 2025' technical paper
Improvements in market conditions helped Cosco Shipping increase its overall volumes by 23% to 5.49 million TEU in the third quarter of 2017, with a year-to-date volume rise of 30.4% to 15.49 million TEU.
Its fleet order follows a spate of other new ship purchases by major carrier lines.
In September 2017, CMA CGM confirmed its latest ship order of nine 22,000 TEU vessels.
Later that month, it was reported that Mediterranean Shipping had secured a deal for 11 22,000-TEU vessels — the largest vessel order in the company’s 47-year history and, at the time, one of the biggest ever in the containership industry.
However, Hapag-Lloyd recently confirmed that it was ending its ship orders after the fifth largest container shipping company received its last vessel as part of an order for 17 newbuilds in 2013.
