Hong Kong-based carrier Orient Overseas International Limited (OOCL) has ordered construction of six 20,000 TEU containerships at Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries.
The deal will usher in OOCL into the elite club of owners of the biggest box ships in the world.
The order is worth a total of approximately USD 951.6 million, with USD 158.6 million assigned for each vessel.
The company said it was arranging bank financing for the vessels and expects that finance for about 70% of the purchase price of each vessel will be finalised in the near future with the balance of the purchase price to be funded from internal resources. Should it fail to arrange bank finance, OOCL said that the full purchase price of each vessel would come from internal resources.
The vessels are expected to be delivered in 2017.
” It is the view of the directors that ownership of the vessels will improve both the operating efficiency and profitability of the group,” OOCL said in a filing to Hong Kong Stock Exchange.