The Taiwanese shipping company Wan Hai has once again expanded its order book: A total of six ships will be built at various shipyards in China.
The company, which is based in the capital Taipei, announced two new orders that have been placed with Chinese shipyards. Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding is building four 6,000 TEU container ships for the shipping company. They will be equipped with dual-fuel engines and will be designed to run on LNG. The costs are between 75 and 82 million dollars each, meaning that the total value of the order is at least 300 million dollars.
Two further, larger ships with a capacity of 9,200 TEU will be built at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding. They are to be powered by methanol and will cost between $102 million and $112 million each.
Wan Hai ordered six LNG ships from Huangpu Wenchong as recently as December. They will also each have a capacity of 6,000 TEU and are scheduled for delivery by 2030. They are primarily intended for regional and intra-Asian trade routes.
The shipping company’s Executive Board also approved the sale of three container ships (5,600 TEU). They are to change hands for $33 million each; the buyer was not named.
Wan Hai is in 11th place in the global ranking of container shipping companies, just behind the Israeli shipping company Zim, which is to be taken over by Hapag-Lloyd. The company has a capacity of around 600,000 TEU and a fleet of around 120 ships. The shipping company is planning strong growth for the future: the order book comprises around 400,000 TEU and around 40 ships. The ratio between TEU and ships indicates a focus on larger units. These include newbuildings of 16,000 TEU each, which are being built in South Korea by HD Hyundai Samho and Samsung Heavy Industries.
In August, the “Wan Hai A20”, the last container ship in a series of 13 newbuilds, was delivered. The capacity of all newbuildings is 13,100 TEU.
