Danaos inks charter deals for 10 vessels

Athens-based containership owner and operator Danaos Corporation has signed charter agreements for ten vessels for a charter period of 3 to 4 years.

As disclosed, the agreement includes one 8,500 TEU vessel, three 3,400 TEU vessels and six 2,200 vessels.

The charter period will begin once the existing charters expire between January and August 2022.

Danaos expects that the new charter agreements will increase the company’s revenue backlog by approximately $378 million, or 21.5% compared to the company’s $1.75 billion backlog as of June 30, 2021.

Furthermore, the expected increase of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) is about $280 million.

“We are very pleased to have significantly increased our contracted backlog by securing multi-year charters for 10 of our vessels. Not only have we achieved charter coverage for 100% of our operating days in 2021, we have already contracted 89% of our operating days for 2022 and 60% for 2023,” the company’s CEO, John Coustas commented.

“We will continue to work to secure additional charter extensions during the strong market environment in order to maximize our profitability.”

Last month, Danaos entered into an agreement to acquire six 5,466 TEU container vessels built at Hanjin Subic Bay shipyard.

The acquired boxships, which are expected to be gradually delivered to the company by the end of the third quarter of 2021, are eco-design wide beam vessels with improved fuel consumption and load efficiency characteristics when compared to conventional designs.

What is more, Greek shipping company made further investments by acquiring the remaining equity interests in its joint venture Gemini Shipholdings Corporation.

Danaos expects the consolidation of Gemini to boost its contracted revenue by approximately $160 million and its contracted EBITDA by approximately $117 million in total.

The company has a fleet of 71 containerships aggregating 436,589 TEUs, including the additional six 5,466 TEU containerships it has bought which are expected to be delivered through October 15, 2021.