Containership charter owner Global Ship Lease (GSL) has agreed five-year charters with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) for two Post-Panamaxes.
The 8,677 TEU ships in question are the 2005-built GSL Tianjin and the 2004-built OOCL Qingdao, to be renamed MSC Tianjin and MSC Qingdao, respectively.
As informed, the new charters are expected to commence upon redelivery of vessels by current charterers during the late second quarter or early third quarter 2019. GSL Tianjin is currently working for CMA CGM and OOCL Qingdao for OOCL, according to data provided on GSL’s website.
The new charters are expected to generate Adjusted EBITDA of approximately USD 25.6 million per vessel for the median firm period, the company said.
“With these new five-year charters to MSC, GSL is taking another major step forward in realizing the full benefits of the supportive fundamentals for our high-specification containerships… We are confident that the underlying supply and demand trends that have created this strong market remain fully intact,” George Youroukos, Executive Chairman of Global Ship Lease, commented.
“Our ability to add more than USD 90 million of contracted EBITDA to our backlog from new charters announced year-to-date and in rapid succession demonstrates the significant value of our commercial platform. These long-term cashflows provide us with excellent forward visibility and further enhance our ability to optimize our capital structure and pursue a lower cost of debt,” Ian Webber, Chief Executive Officer of Global Ship Lease, added.
Global Ship Lease owns 38 containerships ranging in size from 2,207 to 11,040 TEU, nine of which are fuel efficient new-design wide beam vessels, with a total capacity of 200,615 TEU. The fleet’s average age, weighted by TEU capacity, was 11.3 years as of March 31, 2019.