Seaspan Opts For More ‘SAVER’ Ships

Seaspan’s SAVER hull design was developed with a low cost profile in mind. Image courtey Seaspan Corp.

Hong Kong-based Seaspan Corporation (NYSE:SSW) announced Monday it has exercised options for the construction of four additional 10,000 TEU ‘Saver-design’ containerships at shipyards in China.

The will be built at Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding Co. and Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding Co. and are scheduled for delivery in 2016.

The vessels will be built using Seaspan’s so-called “Saver-design”, a fuel efficient hull design developed by MARIN and Marine Design and Research Institute of China (MARIC) with a low cost profile in mind.

Seaspan says it expects to sign long-term time charters for these vessels with one of the major container liner companies in the near future.

Seaspan’s managed fleet consists of 109 containerships representing a total capacity of over 840,000 TEU, including 35 newbuilding containerships on order scheduled for delivery to Seaspan and third parties by the end of 2016. The company’s current operating fleet of 72 vessels has an average age of approximately seven years and an average remaining lease period of approximately five years.

In March, Seaspan took delivery of its first Saver-design ship from Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding Co., the 10,000 TEU Hanjin Buddha, which is to commence a ten-year, fixed-rate time charter with Hanjin Shipping Co.

In addition to three more 10,000 TEU SAVER design ships still to be delivered and chartered to Hanjin, Seaspan has also placed additional orders for five similar vessels at subsidiaries of Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, which will be chartered by MOL.

Seaspan also has a 14,000 SAVER version, of which it has eight ships on order from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and HHI with delivery scheduled for 2014 and 2015, respectively, and to be chartered by Yang Ming.

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