Greater ChinaShipyards

CSIC secures $2.08bn worth of new contracts

China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) has held a grand signing ceremony today for RMB14.3bn ($2.08bn) worth of new deals including newbuilding orders, conversions contracts and financing agreements with the state coming in to help extend orderbooks that were beginning to dwindle.

CSIC Leasing, the financial leasing unit of CSIC, signed contracts for a total of 24 newbuildings made up of VLCCs, shuttle tankers, product tankers, chemical tankers and newcastlemax bulkers, as well as conversion contracts for 12 ships at Dalian Shipbuilding, Wuchang Shipbuilding and Tianjin Xingang Shipbuilding.

Additionally, CSIC signed ship financing agreements for two VLCCs and four woodchip carriers with Bank of China and Nanyang Commercial Bank, and a joint investment agreement with Wah Kwong Shipping for two VLCCs.

CSIC Leasing has already secured chartering contracts for 13 of the newbuildings with Shandong Shipping, RWE Group, Oldendorff, Koch and WEM Lines.

Further details of the contracts were not disclosed.

CSIC Leasing was established in November 2017 and the company owned a fleet of four tankers with another seven newbuildings on order prior to these latest orders.

Another Chinese shipyard-affiliated leasing company, CSSC Shipping, is also aggressively expanding its fleet. The company just completed an IPO in Hong Kong and plans to use 60% of the proceeds from the IPO to finance the acquisition of ships, and 30% to support sale and leaseback projects in the clean energy sector, while the remaining 10% will go to general corporate purposes.

Jason Jiang

Jason is one of the most prolific writers on the diverse China shipping & logistics industry and his access to the major maritime players with business in China has proved an invaluable source of exclusives. Having been working at Asia Shipping Media since inception, Jason is the chief correspondent of Splash and associate editor of Maritime CEO magazine. Previously he had written for a host of titles including Supply Chain Asia, Cargo Facts and Air Cargo Week.
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