OOCL orders ten eco-friendly 16,000 TEU boxships

Hong Kong-based container shipping and logistics company Orient Overseas Container Line Limited (OOCL) has ordered ten environmentally friendly 16,000 TEU containerships in China.

As informed, five boxships will be built at Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering and five at Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering.

The newbuilds are scheduled for delivery between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025.

OOIL revealed that the boxships will be equipped with energy-saving and emission reduction technologies, which will generate cost advantages as well as help in environmental protection.

On 2 September 2021, Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL), the parent company of OOCL, entered into shipbuilding contracts with the two shipbuilders.

The contracts have a value of $1,575.80 million (HK$12,291.24 million).

Up to 60% of the contract price of each vessel is expected to be financed by bank financing with the financing guaranteed by the company which will be finalised before the delivery of the vessels, whilst the balance of the contract price will be funded from internal resources of the group. If the bank financing arrangement could not be arranged, the full contract price of each vessel would come from the internal resources of the group, OOIL said.

“The transaction is in line with the 14th Five Year Plan of the group, which would, among other things, increase the fleet capacity of the group and consolidate its position in the first echelon of the industry. The increase of self-owned vessels … would complement the group’s long term strategic development and growth plan to meet market demand in the future,” OOIL said.

“The group would also benefit from the optimization of its fleet structure and the reduction of its reliance on the vessel charter market. In addition, the vessels under the transaction would increase the average container space per vessel of the group, driving economies of scale, whereby a higher container space per vessel would result in a lower cost per container, enhancing the operating cost competitiveness of the group.”

OOIL added that the boxships will be equipped with energy-saving and emission reduction technologies, which will generate cost advantages as well as help in environmental protection.

The latest deal follows OOCL’s orders for five + seven 23,000 TEU boxships placed in 2020 at the abovementioned COSCO Shipping yards.

In March 2020, OOCL ordered five 23,000 TEU units at Nantong and Dalian, slated for delivery in 2023.

In November of the same year, OOCL ordered another batch of seven identical ultra large container vessels at the two shipyards. The boxships are planned to be handed over to their owner between the third quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2024.