China Cosco Holdings Company Limited had disassembled eight bulk carriers with the aggregate capacity of 553,798 deadweight tonnes throughout July and August 2014. The scrapping is in line with Cosco’s recent decision regarding restructuring of its shipping fleet, and the decommissioning and disposal of aged vessels.
The vessels, sold as scrapped to third-party buyers for RMB 155.5 million (USD 25.3m), are expected to have a negative impact on the company in the amount of RMB 36.4 million (USD 5.9m) in losses incurred.
The scrapping of the eight bulkers, previously owned by China Cosco Bulk Shipping (Group) Company Limited, resulted in decreased overall age of the fleet, at the same time improving the oil savings and overall environmental impact, the company states in their stock-exchange announcement.
Cosco’s latest attempt to cut the overall age of the fleet and increase its global operational competitiveness goes in hand with the company’s recent order of 14,500 TEU container ships to be built by China Shipbuilding Trading and Changxing Shipbuilding, and expected for delivery in 2017 and 2018.