OOCL contemplating mega boxships

Such a move would reflect the expected long-term growth in demand in Europe for Asian exports. Stephen Ng Siu-kow, OOCL director of corporate planning, indicated that the carrier was looking to bolster its fleet. Ng said: “We are looking at 8,000 TEUs and up to 13,000 TEUs, but we have not made any decisions on placing orders for these vessels yet. We have a team of experts who are constantly exploring opportunities and regularly meet shipyards and other vendors to review new technologies, discuss industry issues, as well as explore possible new buildings.”

The largest vessels now sailing in the OOCL fleet are 16 ships capable of carrying 8,063 TEUs that were ordered from Samsung shipyard in South Korea at a total cost of $1 billion. The last in the series, OOCL Luxembourg, was christened last April.

The company also has six 8,888 TEU box-ships that were ordered from Shanghai’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in 2007 at an overall price of $723 million. Ng said these ships would be delivered between 2011 and 2013.

The current price of a 13,000 TEU container ship ordered from a South Korean shipyard is about $125 million. These ships can only be deployed on Asia-Europe services because ports in the United States have restrictions on the size of vessels that can use the terminals. Similarly, while container volumes on intra-Asian trade routes are growing, operationally 8,000-13,000 TEU is too large for the trade.