Danaos postpones deliveries

Danaos has delayed the delivery of five 12,600 teu containerships by a year, to 2012.

This brings the total number of newbuilding delivery delays worked out by John Coustas, the Athens-based containership owner, this year to 15 out of its total orderbook of 30. Danaos negotiations for delays were an “ongoing process”, and would go on for months.

The five 12,600 teu ships are on order at Hyundai Samho in South Korea. According to Danaos’ annual report, the scheduled deliveries were to be between February 2011 and September 2011. The process of delaying and staggering deliveries started by Danaos in the first quarter this year and now the company is scheduled to take delivery of only seven ships in 2009, followed by 12 in 2010, seven in 2011 and now five in 2012.

All newbuilding vessels are under charter cover, but Danaos has not publicly released the charterers’ names citing confidentiality clauses.