Mediterranean Shipping, which has surpassed Maersk Line to become the world's largest container shipping company, has not stopped expanding its fleet. It has placed an order to build 14 dual-fuel container ships again, and the number of new ships under construction has exceeded the 100 mark. The large order of more than 10.7 billion yuan will also become the largest new ship order undertaken by New Era Shipbuilding since its establishment.
According to trade winds, Mediterranean Shipping has signed a contract with New Era Shipbuilding for the construction of 14 8,000TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered container ships. The new ships will be equipped with B-type storage tanks.
If the news is true, this will be the largest order for New Era Shipbuilding since its establishment in 2000. New Era Shipbuilding has been mainly building bulk carriers and oil tankers before, and the number of container ships delivered is not many. Only seven 8800TEU container ships built for Mediterranean Shipping and four 10622TEU container ships built for CIMC Group. Delivered between 2014 and 2015.
Last year, with the surge in container ship orders, New Era Shipbuilding returned to this ship type market, successively undertaking four 13,000TEU container ships from Greek ship owner Chartworld and six 7000TEU container ships from Singapore ship owner Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS). Ship order.
According to the International Ship Network, Mediterranean Shipping initially announced that it would order medium-sized dual-fuel container ships at the beginning of this year. Not long ago, it was reported that the company has signed a total of 28 new shipbuilding letters of intent with three shipyards in China and South Korea, including 14 new era shipbuilding and 8 8000TEU dual-fuel ships from Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding, and 6 7700TEU ships from South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries Group. Boat.
In the past two years, Mediterranean Shipping has been active in the newbuilding and second-hand ship market, rapidly expanding its fleet, and officially surpassed Maersk Line at the end of last year to become the world's largest container shipping company. According to Alphaliner data, MSC currently operates 664 vessels with a total capacity of about 4,351,960 TEUs, including 325 owned vessels and 339 leased vessels.
At the same time, Mediterranean Shipping ranks first in the world in the number of orders in hand, with a total of 88 vessels of 1,240,500 TEU, accounting for 28.5% of the existing fleet, almost twice that of the second-ranked Evergreen Shipping (about 623,200 TEU). If the 14 ships of the new era are added, Mediterranean Shipping will have more than 100 orders.
Data shows that container shipping companies led by Mediterranean Shipping signed a record number of new ship orders last year, with a total of 569 container ship orders of 4.3 million TEU, with a contract value of US$42.8 billion. This order level is even higher than that of China. The previous record level of 3.3 million TEU in 2007 was 29% higher, equivalent to 3.5 times the average order volume for the 10-year period ending in 2020.
At present, container ship orders have surged from a low of less than 2 million TEU in October 2020 to more than 6.5 million TEU, reaching the highest level since the end of 2008. Hand-held orders accounted for 26% of the existing fleet, the highest since 2014.
