Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC), the world’s largest container shipping company, is seeking shipyard capacity for a new shipbuilding program.
According to shipbroker MB Shipbrokers (formerly Maersk Broker), MSC has signed a contract with Jiangsu Hantong Ship Heavy Industry (HT) for 10 21,000 TEU liquefied natural gas (LNG) dual-fuel powered containerships, with deliveries expected to start in the second half of 2027 to 2028. In addition, the owner has placed orders for an unknown number of 11,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel containerships at Penglai Zhongbai Jinglu Ship Industry (Jinglu Shipyard) and an unknown number of 12,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel powered containerships at the former Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries.
The above containership orders of MSC have not announced the specific cost, but according to the data released by Clarkson on August 5, the current market cost of ultra-large containerships is about $272 million, if this calculation, the total value of HT’s 10 new ships is about $2.72 billion; 13,000TEU/13,500TEU LNG dual-fuel powered containerships have a market cost of about $181 million; The market cost of the 10,000TEU/11,000TEU LNG dual-fuel powered containerships is approximately $157.5 million.
HT Entering New Markets with $2.72 billion containership order
The official website shows that, HT was established in 2003, specializing in shipbuilding and offshore products. HT is located in Jiangsu province,Nantong city,which is only 140km away from Shanghai and transportation is very convenient. HT has1000 m deep water coastline. The main products of HT include various types of vessels up to 80,000 dwt and FPSO.
HT covers a total area of 800,000㎡. The annual steel processing capacity reaches 150,000 tons. The main facilities include: three slipwayswith capacities of 50,000 ton and 80,000 ton, processing workshops with an area of 120,000㎡, painting workshops with an area of 18,000㎡ and outfitting quay.
HT’s main products focus on two major bulk carriers and liquid cargo carriers as well as offshore products. Bulk carriers cover from 38,000 DWT to 208,000 DWT, while liquid cargo carriers cover a full range of MR product tankers, LR1 product tankers, LR2 product tankers, Suezmax tankers, and Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs).
At the beginning of this year, HT entered the VLCC construction market for the first time by undertaking two 319,000 dwt VLCCs for Trafigura, one of the world’s largest metals and minerals traders, further demonstrating the company’s expertise in the construction of large liquid cargo vessels. Four months later, Trafigura announced that it had placed an order for three additional VLCCs with HT, bringing the number of vessels built under the partnership to five units.
It is worth noting that HT, which is famous for building bulk carriers, also formally entered the tanker market at the end of 2023 by undertaking two 157,000 dwt Suezmax tankers ordered by the Greek ship king George Economou.
Excluding MSC’s newbuilding orders, all of HT’s undertakings so far this year have been for bulk carriers, with the exception of Trafigura’s five VLCCs.
Jinglu Shipyard scores order for large dual-fuel containerships
In addition to orders from Rongsheng Heavy Industries and HT, MSC is also planning to order an unknown number of 11,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel-powered containerships from Jinglu Shipyard. If the order is finalized, it will be the largest and largest specification containership ever signed by Jinglu Shipyard and its first order for dual-fuel powered ships.
In the field of containerships, Jinglu Shipyard has only built feeder container ships, the largest of which is a 3,000 TEU containership from Celsius Tankers of Denmark. The largest ship built before was 82,000 dwt Kamsarmax bulk carrier. So far this year, Jinglu Shipyard’s major newbuilding orders consisted of product tankers/chemical tankers and bulk carriers, mainly from foreign shipowners such as Laskaridis Maritime of Greece, Medcare Shipping of Italy, and Celsius Tankers of Denmark.
Jinglu Shipyard is a large modern shipbuilding enterprise with ship repair and construction as its main business, belonging to Qingdao Military-Civil Integration Development Group Co., LTD. (Rongfa Group) and jointly held by Shandong Huiyang Group. Jinglu Shipyard covers a total area of 1.8 million square meters and has an annual production capacity of one million deadweight.
Jinglu Shipyard has one 300000t dry dock (369m*102m), one floating dock with lifting capacity 35000t(296m*52m), one floating dock with lifting capacity 5000t(108.9m*26m). The total length of the outfitting quay is about 3000 m. The special equipment and facilities for shipbuilding, including 1000 t and 500 t of gantry cranes, are complete. The use of international leading design software and precision control software fundamentally ensures product quality.
As the world’s only liner giant with a capacity of more than 6 million TEU, Alphaliner’s data shows that MSC’s fleet now operates 845 containerships, including 548 owned ships and 297 chartered-in ships, with a total capacity of about 6.02 million TEU, and a market share of 20%; it owns 100 new ships under construction, totaling 1.21 million TEU, ranking the world’s first, accounting for about 20% of its existing fleet capacity.
