German-based Nordic Hamburg and the Finnish shipping firm Containerships have ordered up to eight short sea 1,400 TEU dual-fuel containerships at Chinese shipbuilder Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard.
Under the agreement, CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping, the shipowning arm of the shipbuilding group of the same name, will provide financial leasing service for the new vessels.
The shipbuilding contract includes four firm vessels orders, with options for further four containerships.
The newbuilding charter framework agreement was signed in Helsinki, Finland.
The order for the vessels was initially placed with Chinese Yangzhou Guoyu Shipyard in 2014, however, the owner cancelled the deal and moved the order to Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard.
As a result, the first four dual-fuel engine-technology vessels are expected to be delivered during 2018 instead of 2017 as had been planned.
Each ship is set to accommodate up to 639 units of 45-foot containers.
Containerships will be chartering the ships over the long term, the owner and technical manager will be GNS Shipping/Nordic Hamburg, while Arkon will be the commercial manager and the charter broker.
World Maritime News Staff