An executive from Cosco has denied rumours about the company’s plan to order record-breaking 25,000 teu ultra large containerships at a press conference yesterday.
“We are not going to order 25,000 teu ships at the current stage. We have never considered such a newbuilding program,” Wang Haimin, vice president of Cosco Shipping Holdings, said at the company’s interim results press conference yesterday.
The company’s denial on the project follows the news carried by Splash this March that Cosco’s Shanghai Ship and Shipping Research Institute had completed a design for a 25,000 teu, some 1,300 teu larger in capacity than any boxship ordered to date.
Wang said Cosco’s fleet expansion will follow market demands. The Chinese carrier could see its third ranking in the global liner league be usurped by France’s CMA CGM, when all of the Marseille’s carrier’s extensive orderbook delivers.
Andy Lane, a container shipping analyst in Singapore, questioned the “risky” practicalities of a 25,000 teu ship when news of the design first surfaced earlier this year.
“The slot cost saving of a 25,000 teu capacity ship versus one of 20,000 teu is minimal, all other things being equal. With some of that value being eroded by the additional three days per rotation of in-port time, reduced service offerings and risks poorer utilisation levels,” Lane told Splash in March.
