German owner Asiatic Lloyd has ordered up to four ammonia-fuelled 7,100TEU ships from Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC).
It is Asiatic Lloyd's first container newbuilding order since 2013, when the Bunnemann-owned outfit ordered a pair of 9,034TEU ships from Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries. The ship owner has a fleet of 26 second-hand container ships.
Asiatic has ordered two, which will be delivered within 2023, with two options, at US$70 million each. The vessels will be 255m in length, with a 42.8m beam, and a 12m draught.
The remarkable recovery in container shipping demand that began in Q3 2020 continued into H1 2021 and has encouraged owners to build ships, pushing the global orderbook-to-fleet ratio from under 10% in mid-2020 to almost 17% today. |