Reykjavik-based shipping company Eimskip has finalized an order for two 2,150 TEU container vessels with China Shipbuilding Trading Company Limited and Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard Co. Ltd.
The new vessels will have an ice class and will be designed in accordance with the Polar Code. With an overall length of 180 meters and breadth of 31 meters, the ships will have a TIER III engine built to lower Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emission into the atmosphere, Eimskip said.
Scheduled for delivery in 2019, the new containerships were ordered at a contract price of USD 32 million a piece. Eimskip said that the contract is subject to financing and the company is working on securing the funding.
Additionally, Greenland’s national carrier Royal Arctic Line has signed a contract to build one containership of the same type with the Guangzhou Wenchong shipyard.
The orders were made on the back of a letter of intent signed between the two carriers in May 2016 to form and evaluate a potential cooperation of sharing capacity on the construction of container vessels and capacity sharing.
Eimskip and Royal Arctic Line have now signed an agreement for the cooperation, subject to notification to and confirmation from the relevant competition authorities if applicable.
“We assume that the cooperation will increase business activities between the Arctic nations, especially between Iceland and Greenland, where activities have been limited due to lack of frequency and direct services,” Gylfi Sigfússon, President and CEO of Eimskip, said.