Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has been bulking up ahead of joining the Ocean Alliance on April 1. Alphaliner reports the Tung family led line chartered in eight large boxships in February alone.
Among the ships chartered by OOCL are three brand new vessels of 11,000 teu capacity, the Costamare-controlled Cape Akritas, Cape Tainaro and Cape Kortia. The ships have been fixed for 6-12 months at $18,000 per day. OOCL has also taken the 10,114 teu duo Express Rome (formerly Hanjin Italy) and Express Athens (formerly Hanjin Greece) from Danaos Shipping, for a period of 4-12 months at $13,000 per day. The carrier has fixed another 10,000 teu unit, the Seaspan Elbe at undisclosed terms. OOCL has also fixed two ships of 8,000-8,500 teu capacity, the 8,533 teu Lloyd Parsifal which it has taken for 2-7 months at $8,300 a day, and the 8,189 teu Seamax Greenwich which it took for 3-7 months at $8,950.
Alphaliner said OOCL had been “instrumental” in the recovery seen in charter rates in the very large containership sector.
OOCL is the smallest of the four-member new Ocean Alliance, some 410,000 slots behind Evergreen, more than one million behind Cosco Shipping and more than 1.5m slots behind CMA CGM.
The line is set to take a series of 21,000 teu ships this year.
Unveiling its annual results earlier this week, OOCL’s chairman CC Tung commented: ““In these turbulent times, with industry consolidation occurring at a pace that few, if any, had expected, OOCL continues to build its future on the twin pillars of alliance membership and the efficient operation of the most appropriate vessels for each trade lane.”
