Boom in super-sized newbuilds as world trade soars

THE UK ship-owning arm of the Ofer Group, Zodiac Maritime, has placed an order for eight 12,500-TEU newbuildings with Samsung, with an option to purchase a ninth ship later on.

The vessels are scheduled for delivery in 2012. They will be chartered by Ofer-controlled Zim Integrated Shipping Services, said a report by AXS-Alphaliner News.

It said the price per vessel is estimated to be around US$170 million.

The fresh wave of newbuilding orders comes as Hyundai Heavy Industries Co (HHI) said in a regulatory filing that it has landed deals worth a combined KRW775 billion (US$828.27 million) to build five containerships for an unidentified Marshall Islands company, with delivery by October 2011.

The news agency said the price per vessel is US$165 million, which most likely places them in the 12,500 TEU class, adding that Seaspan was earlier linked with an order for such ships.

These new contracts raise the global number of ships on order with a capacity of over 8,000 TEU to 308, according to AXS-Alphaliner records, which said 165 of them have capacities of over 10,000 TEU.

This brings the total ship orderbook for all sizes of vessels to more than 6.5 million TEU, equivalent to more than 62 per cent of the existing cellular fleet.