Responding to demand upswings

It was not so long ago that talk was of when and not if a box ship with a capacity greater than 10,000 TEU would be built. That talk has subsided in recent years. World trade took a downturn as the 21st century rolled in and ships half that size started sailing with unsold capacity. Without demand owners weren?t going to risk bigger capacity ships, irrespective of the lower unit cost potential.

Today, there is some cautious optimism that world trade is set for an upswing. The response from owners has been a smattering of enquiries for large post-panamax box ships. The yards in turn have pulled their post-panamax box ship designs from the shelf and started marketing them again in earnest. Except this time there is more caution. The designs marketed, in general, are for ships just marginally bigger than what has gone before ? with 8,200 TEU being about the biggest.

Hyundai Heavy Industries, for example, says it has secured an order to build the largest capacity boxships ever (at least as far as any owner has been prepared to confess to given that AP M?ller?s S-class ships may very well be larger) at its Ulsan yard. Company officials are tight-lipped on detail except to say that the first ship in the order is scheduled for delivery in the second half of next year and that capacity is a little bit more than 8,100 TEU. The Motor Ship?s market intelligence suggests that German KG Conti Reederei may be behind the order.

The shipbuilder?s reference to the 8,100 TEU figure is driven by another order on which the owner has placed less stringent secrecy requirements on its contractors. Canadian company Seaspan has ordered five 8,100 TEU ships from Samsung Heavy Industries on the back of a charter agreement with China Shipping, a subsidiary of China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco). The vessels will be delivered in 2004 and 2005. Seaspan has contracted Lloyd?s Register to class the ships and provide a benefits package through their design, construction and operation.

Samsung is also contracted to build eight 7,700 TEU ships in Geoje for OOCL, with two further options outstanding on this series from the Hong Kong company. Delivery of these ships is scheduled to start later this year.

Specialist containership builder Hanjin Heavy Industries last month won orders for five 8,030 TEU post-panamax boxships ? from German company Reederei Claus-Peter Offen ? in spite of the restrictions of its docks. The length of its two larger docks is 301.8m, less than the length of a post-panamax ship. To overcome this restriction, it will use a technique where the bulbous bow of the ships is added after their launch from the drydock in Busan. The ships are scheduled for delivery in 2005.

DSME has sold a 6,750 TEU post-panamax design to customers such as MSC, Hapag Lloyd and Niederelbe Schiffahrts, but to date it has yet to realise an order for its bigger 9,300 TEU design. That?s not to say it won?t. The Korean shipbuilders are reasonably confident of demand for larger box ships than we are currently seeing being ordered, although 10,000 TEU may prove a step too far. For now.