Rates in container shipping are in decline. The long-heated market and scarce building sites are making newbuilds expensive – especially for Evergreen.
Just a month ago, the liner shipping company Evergreen officially confirmed what the sparrows had long been whistling from the rooftops: the order for eleven more Megamax container ships with a capacity of 24,000 TEU. However, the order, which was split between Guangzhou Shipyard International (China, 5 ships) and Hanwha Ocean (Korea, 6 ships), comes at a price.
As the industry service Alphaliner now reports, never before has so much been paid for container ships. Hanwha will receive KRW 2.33 billion, the equivalent of USD 1.6 billion. This results in a unit price of a good 267 million dollars per ship. This would be the highest price ever paid for a container ship.
At the end of 2020, Hapag-Lloyd also ordered comparably sized LNG-powered ships from Hanwha. The series of six ships was later expanded to twelve. However, at USD 164 million, the Hamburg-based liner shipping company is paying around USD 100 million less per ship.
The high price shows that the shipping companies are still willing to invest in the expansion and renewal of their fleets and are evidently positive about the long-term market prospects. This has also prompted the Korean shipyard to return to building container ships after a three-year break.
