Containership Orders Pile Up in China as Secondhand Values Outrun Newbuilding Prices

Chinese yards are absorbing another week of containership orders that most of the market expected to slow. Shanghai-based Zhonggu Shipping Group contracted two 14,000 teu Neo-Panamax vessels at Hudong-Zhonghua, with the contract signed on 13 October, marking an escalation into ultra-large tonnage for an operator whose recent fleet additions were 6,300 teu and 1,800 teu ships. Each vessel will have an overall length of 336 metres, a 51-metre beam, a moulded depth of 30.2 metres and a design speed of 21 knots on a conventional low-speed engine. The order takes Zhonggu's spending on container newbuildings this year to about $1.37 billion, and follows a similar two-ship 14,000 teu purchase at the same yard by fellow Chinese carrier China United Lines only weeks earlier.

The bulker side is being driven by a price inversion rather than by freight optimism. Nasdaq-listed EuroDry signed a contract with Hengli Shipbuilding in Dalian for a third 82,000 dwt kamsarmax at about $37.0 million, with delivery due in the third quarter of 2029 and the vessel specified to EEDI Phase 3 eco-design standards. Chairman and chief executive Aristides Pittas said the case rests on asset values: with modern five-year-old kamsarmaxes being valued at or above newbuilding prices, the company reckons it gets a brand-new, more fuel-efficient ship for the same or lower capital investment. The deal brings EuroDry's newbuilding programme to five vessels and 373,000 dwt against a current fleet of 11 vessels and 766,420 dwt; Hengli has been pricing comparable kamsarmaxes at roughly $36 million to $38 million for a run of Greek owners including Star Bulk, Oceanbulk and Laskaridis Maritime.

Owners are also paying up to secure slots they can no longer buy later. Global Ship Lease exercised options for two additional mid-size containerships for about $163 million in total, taking its newbuilding orderbook to 17 vessels with delivery scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2029; executive chairman George Youroukos said the ships were being added on terms agreed earlier this year, at prices no longer available in the market for comparably specified 2029-delivery tonnage. The group separately secured a $1 billion loan to fund containership purchases. Industry data covering the order flow points the same way, with owners committing to 2028 and 2029 berths rather than testing the secondhand market.

US yards are seeing their own work arrive from a different direction. Hanwha Philly Shipyard christened Makua, the first of three 3,600 teu Jones Act dual-fuel containerships for Matson, at Philadelphia on 10 October, an investment of about $1 billion for the series with sisters due in the third quarter of 2027 and second quarter of 2028. Early this week TOTE and the US Maritime Administration signed the contract for the Missile Range Instrumentation Vessel programme and TOTE promptly awarded Hanwha Philly a 1+2 ship construction subcontract, with the first vessel, to be named Golden Defender, due for delivery in 2030 to replace the 1965-built Pacific Tracker and the 1970-built Pacific Collector. Chinese trade reporting puts the price of each ship at around $1 billion, and the design shares roughly 70% commonality with the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel hull already built at the yard.