RCL Buys Boxship Newbuild

Thailand-based shipping company Regional Container Lines (RCL) is continuing with fleet upgrade as it decided to acquire a containership newbuilding.

The company will buy the 390 TEU boxship from Xinda (H.K.) Shipping Limited and Wenzhou Shenchang Shipping.

As informed, the 4,827 dwt ship is expected to be delivered around January 2018.

RCL will pay USD 2.98 million for the 92.95-meter-long newbuild which will replace a chartered-in vessel.

The announcement comes weeks after RCL ordered two 1,668 TEU boxships at Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding in China. The order also includes options for two more vessels of similar size and specifications.

On November 10, RCL issued financial results for the third quarter of this year which show that the company posted a net income of THB 241.7 million (USD 7.3 million), a 153 percent recovery as compared to the same period a year earlier and a 48.4 percent improvement over the second quarter of this year. As explained, the results were boosted due to higher freight rates and tight cost control.

In conjunction with the Q3 results, the company also announced the dissolution of its subsidiary, RCL Services SA, Panama. The disposal of the subsidiary does not affect the operations of the company, RCL said.