Yang Ming ranked no. 10 in the global container liner shipping market. Yang Ming has announced another newbuilding order with a total value of USD 351.33 million.
The order includes three 8,000 TEU ships that can also be powered by methanol. The order is going to Japan – to Imabari Shipbuilding and its subsidiary Nihon Shipyard.
Yang Ming has thus completely fulfilled its plan to build six 8,000 TEU ships and seven 15,000 TEU ships. The first batch of three 8,000 TEU ships was ordered from the same Japanese shipyard in March. Additionally, on July 17, Yang Ming ordered all 15,000-TEU ships from South Korean shipyard Hanwha Ocean at a price of around $1.53 billion.
In a statement, Yang Ming explained that the newbuilds are intended to replace ageing vessels of 5,500 to 6,500 TEU that have been in service for over 20 years.
“These newbuildings will stabilize the medium to long-term fleet deployment and strengthen the company’s service offering. The 8,000 TEU vessels have energy-efficient main engines and a methanol dual-fuel design, which allows flexibility to adapt to the increasing availability of alternative fuels and future regulatory changes,” says the Taiwanese company.
The current CEO of Yang Ming, Tsai Feng-ming, has made a top priority to renew the company’s fleet after the carrier dropped one place to 10th in the liner rankings in 2024 due to its reluctance to expand its fleet. The industry service Alphaliner currently lists a fleet of 100 ships with a total of 725,000 TEU for the shipping company. 60 of the freighters with 335,000 TEU are “own”, the rest come from the charter market. The order book now accounts for around 30% of the fleet in service.
Yang Ming also has over 40,000 new containers worth $120 million in the run-up to the delivery of several newbuildings. They have been ordered from China International Marine Containers (CIMC) and Guangdong Fuwa Equipment Manufacturing. Also today, the company announced that it has sold 38,636 old containers to Singapore-based used container dealer Trident International Industry for around $49 million.
