Contship goes for newbuildings

Known until now purely as a charterer of container ships, Contship Containerlines has dipped its toe into the newbuildings market for the first time with an order for three 4,115 TEU container ships at Daewoo in Korea.

Low prices in Korea are thought to have encouraged the line to order new ships rather than charter them.

The newbuildings will have a sizeable reefer capacity of around 1,300 plugs, and will enter service from 2002 onwards in Europe/Australia trades.