Lines splash out on newbuildings

Pressure on freight rates as a glut of tonnage begins floating into service has failed to put the brakes on newbuilding orders, and lines are injecting billions of dollars into new and larger vessels. Many of the June orders are for vessels greater than 8,000 TEU and the total price tag is equally impressive at well over US$7.5 billion for that month alone. The biggest orders were reported by Hyundai Heavy Industries of Korea. The world’s biggest yard received orders for 27 container vessels, one of which is 10,000 TEU and nine are 9,700 TEU.