Gebab orders six boxships

Gebab in Germany ordered six 4,550TEU container ships at a total cost of $350 million from Daewoo Shipbuilding (DSME) and Daewoo Mangalia in Romania. The Korean yard will build the first two and the Mangalia yard the other four. Ship particulars are 261m lon, 32.2m wide and a depth of 21.5m. They will have a service speed of 24.2 knots and will all be delivered by July 2007.

The new order is very important for the DSME group and the latest order is an example of its plan to establish a global network of five to six overseas shipbuilding facilities in the next five years. Daewoo has a 51% stakeholding in the Mangalia facility which, until recently, concentrated on the construction of hulls with the outfitting being at other shipyards in Europe.

DSME also revealed that it has clinched a 145,700 cbm LNG carrier from Angelicousis for Kristen Navigation. Kristen has, to date, placed orders for a total of 30 ships with DSME including this latest LNG carrier. Ship particulars are 285.4m long, 43.4m wide, a depth of 26m and a service speed of 19.5 knots.

The Okpo-based shipbuilder also said that it clinched two roros from Wallenius and 2 VLCC from a Hong-Kong based ship owner.