Seaspan Corporation (Seaspan), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlas Corp. (Atlas) (NYSE:ATCO), on Friday (Feb12) announced that it has entered into agreements with a major shipyard for 10 – 15,000 TEU dual-fuel liquefied natural gas (LNG) containership newbuilds. The ultra-modern containerships are anticipated to begin deliveries in the first half of 2023, and upon completion will enter 12-year charters with a global liner.
Bing Chen, Chairman, President and CEO of Seaspan, commented, “We are extremely honoured to facilitate our customers industry leading environmental initiative. Our commitment to ESG principles, carbon reduction, and developing our fleet through increasingly environmental-friendly technologies is signified by our first LNG-powered investment. We are expanding the scope of our customer solutions by elevating our focus on lowering the impact of emissions, which will result from the adoption and addition of LNG-powered vessels to our fleet. As we have executed sustainability-linked financing which parallels this fleet expansion, we are resolved to contribute to a greener business community in the future. These transactions clearly demonstrate our ability to seize opportunities to develop industry-leading customer solutions and our commitment for quality growth backed by long-term committed partnerships. Seaspan will continue to lead the industry by offering our liner customers best-in-class service and creative solutions through exceptional fleet scale, an integrated platform and operational excellence.”
The containerships are anticipated to be financed from additional borrowings as well as cash on hand. As of September 30, 2020, Seaspan’s global fleet consisted of 127 vessels and approximately 1,073,000 TEU, with total contracted revenue of approximately $4.1 billion, and a weighted average remaining lease period of approximately 4 years. Since December 2020, and including the LNG Containerships announced today, Seaspan has announced 17 newbuild vessels, including five 12,200 TEU, two 24,000 TEU, and this announcement of ten LNG dual-fuel 15,000 TEU, which will add significant new capacity of 259,000 TEU to the fleet. Seaspan continues to enhance its fleet makeup with continued focus on its core 9,000 to 15,000 TEU size category.