Grimaldi Group of Naples has just exercised options with Chinese shipyard Yangfan for a further two car carrier newbuldings.
Sources familiar with the deal confirmed to Splash that the Italian family-owned shipping company in the last few days decided to invest some $120m, lifting its orderbook of pure car truck carriers to 10 units: seven from Yangfan and three from Jinling.
Grimaldi still has another six options pending at Chinese yards.
Grimaldi’s total orderbook for 10 pure car truck carriers is worth $585m now. These 13-deck vessels with 7,800 ceu capacity from 2017 onwards will be deployed on transatlantic routes to move Fiat Chrysler vehicles from Europe to the US and Canada.
A few days ago the first of four G4 class conro vessels was delivered by Hudhong Zhonghua to Grimaldi’s subsidiary Atlantic Container Lines, and made its inaugural port call at Halifax and New York. The remaining three newbuildings are scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2016.
