On May 30, COSCO Shipping Holdings Co., Ltd (COSCO Shipping Holdings) issued a ” Progress Announcement on Supplementary Agreement on Vessels under Construction Signed by Subordinate Company”.
The announcement disclosed that on May 29, 2024, COSCO (Cayman) Mercury Limited (COSCO Mercury), an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of COSCO Shipping Holdings, entered into four Supplemental Agreements with COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Yangzhou) in respect of four container ships under construction. According to the agreement, COSCO Mercury agreed to convert and the above four container ships into conventional fuel and methanol dual-fuel power, with an increase of US$28.5 million for each ship, and an increase of US$114 million in total, and the payment term and delivery time under the original agreement will be adjusted accordingly.
It is reported that COSCO Mercury and COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Yangzhou) had signed a shipbuilding contract on July 15, 2021, when COSCO Mercury placed orders for a total of six 14,092 TEU container ships and four 16,180 TEU container ships.
Among them, the cost for one 16,180 TEU container ship is US$155 million. The conversion will increase the container ship price from US$155 million by US$28.5 million to US$183.5 million each, and the total price of the four container ship will increase from US$620 million by US$114 million to US$734 million.
Meanwhile, the delivery period of the above four container ships has been adjusted from the originally planned delivery between June 2025 and December 2025 to the period between November 2025 and June 2026.
COSCO Shipping Holdings said that the company has always adhered to the concept of green, low-carbon and sustainable development, and has continued to improve the top-level design of its green and low-carbon transformation development strategy. Based on the principle of “mature technology, reasonable cost and reliable supply”, the Group has made a long-term plan to steadily realize the low-carbon green transformation of the dual-brand fleet as a whole.
COSCO Shipping Holdings said that the conversion project is to meet the requirements of the future global green and low-carbon shipping regulations, taking into account the efficiency of the conversion and cost control of the ships under construction. The project will be conducive to the long-term compliance of the relevant vessels with the requirements of emission reduction-related policies and maintaining high environmental ratings, which will help the company to better comply with environmental regulations and reduce compliance risks and operating costs.