Maersk Line has officially announced a newbuilding deal with COSCO that provides the building of seven 3,600-TEU ice-class containerships with an option for two additional units. According to an agreement between the parties, the price of the deal is confidential.
The vessels will be built in COSCO Shipyard in Zhoushan, China, which is the shipyard's first containership order.
The COO with Maersk Line, Soren Toft, commented:
“I am very happy to announce this new order and the first in our investment programme.”
He also added that the company's strategy was to to grow with the market, thus new vessels were needed from 2017.
The delivery dates for the new containerships are set to be in the period April – November in 2017. They will have a length of 200 m, a draft of 10 m, a beam – 35.2 m and will operate for Seago Line, Maersk's subsidiary.
The order is the first for the Danish owner since 2011 (when the Triple-E series were booked at DSME) and it is step number one from a 5-year plan for adding new vessels and retrofitting the old fleet that will cost some $15 billion.
“We expect to place additional orders during 2015,” further added Soren Toft.