EMEA News
CMA CGM Looking To Order at Least Three 20,000 TEU Boxships
The world's third largest shipping company CMA CGM S/A is currently in negotiations to buy at least three 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity containerships in a deal estimated at $420 million, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to unnamed sources, the ships are likely to be built by South Korea-based Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co., who reportedly offered CMA CGM a five percent discount compared to prices quoted by other South Korean shipyards.
The ships will reportedly be delivered by 2017.
The vessels are also expected serve the Asia-Europe trade, a route that both Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) have already deployed mega-ships on as part of the 2M alliance.
Plummeting freight rates have so far led to a number of large shipping alliances, including the Ocean Three alliance that CMA CGM is a part of along with China Shipping Container Lines Co. (CSCL) and United Arab Shipping Co. (UASC).
Shippers have also begun to move towards larger and larger boxships, which operators say can reduce their per TEU costs by 25 percent.
Early this year, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) announced that it would be upgrading its fleet with 20,000 TEU containerships, while last month, Maersk Line confirmed that it was looking to order 11 18,000 TEU boxships in the second quarter of 2015.
