Seaspan Takes Delivery of First SAVER-Design Containership

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

Seaspan Corporation (NYSE:SSW) announced Thursday that it accepted delivery of its first SAVER-design containership, the 10,000 TEU Hanjin Buddha.

The new containership, which was constructed by Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding Co., is the first to be built using Seaspan’s so-called SAVER design, featuring a fuel efficient hull developed by MARIN and Marine Design and Research Institute of China (MARIC).

The Hanjin Buddha will commence a ten-year, fixed-rate time charter with Hanjin Shipping Co. The ship is the first of a total of three vessels to be chartered by Seaspan to Hanjin.

“The delivery of the Hanjin Buddha is an important milestone for our Company, as it marks the first SAVER design containership in our fleet and the first Seaspan vessel to be chartered to Hanjin,” said Gerry Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Seaspan. “We look forward to adding another four 10000 TEU SAVER design vessels to our operating fleet during 2014, two of which will be chartered to Hanjin. We continue to see strong interest from liner companies in our SAVER design and are committed to expanding our fleet and providing leading liner companies with state-of-the-art, fuel efficient containerships.”

In addition to the three 10,000 TEU SAVER design ships for Hanjin, Seaspan has 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, to be chartered by Yang Ming.

Currently, Seaspan’s managed fleet consists of 105 containerships representing a total capacity of over 800,000 TEU, including 31 newbuilding containerships on order scheduled for delivery to Seaspan and third parties by the end of 2016. Seaspan’s current operating fleet consists of 72 vessels with an average age of approximately seven years and an average remaining lease period of approximately five years.

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