According to Trade Winds, German shipowner Peter Döhle once again chose Guangzhou Shipbuilding international (GSI) and placed an order for two 8,400 TEU container ships.
In January, MB Shipbrokers reported that Peter Döhle had signed a contract with GSI for 3+2 8,400 TEU LNG dual-fuel container ships. Currently, two options have been taken into effect, bringing the total number of ships on the order to 5.
The unit price of these new ships is expected to be US$120 million to US$125 million, and the total price is expected to exceed US$600 million (about RMB 4.4 billion). The first batch of ships will be delivered between 2027 and 2028.
According to the official website description, Peter Döhle was founded in 1956 and operates a fleet of 307 container ships (ranging from 300 TEU to 14,000 TEU) and 38 bulk carriers.
Last June, Peter Döhle ordered four 14,000TEU methanol-ready large container ships from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, with each ship costing about US$150 million. This was Peter Döhle’s first ship order from a Chinese shipyard in nine years. In July 2015, the shipowner ordered two 3,830TEU container ships from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
It is worth mentioning that on February 21, the Office of the United States Trade Representative proposed to impose port fees on ships built in China. Subsequently, Trump announced that he would sign an executive order to “curb” China’s shipbuilding, causing “panic” in the global shipping and shipbuilding industries in recent days.
However, Western shipowners are still choosing Chinese shipyards for shipbuilding. In addition to this new order of GSI, CMA CGM has signed a contract with Jiangnan Shipyard for as many as 12 18,000 TEU container ships on February 28th, which shows the strong competitiveness of Chinese shipbuilders in the global shipbuilding market, and also highlights once again the irreplaceability of China’s shipbuilding globally.