MOL Orders Six Ultra Large Boxships

Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has placed an order for six 20, 000 TEU containerships.

Four 20,000 TEU containerships will be built at Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries, whereas the remaining two have been ordered from MOL’s compatriot shipbuilder Imabari Shipbuilding Co.

MOL said that the two mega boxships assigned to Imabari have been chartered out to Japanese liner company Shoei Kisen Kaisha, Ltd.

The six vessels will be launched and delivered in 2017, and will serve the Asia-Europe service.

“The newbuilding vessels will adopt various highly advanced energy-saving technologies, which will further reduce fuel consumption and cost, in comparison with 14,000 TEU types that MOL currently operates. The main engines have the specifications which enable LNG use as fuel in the future remodeling,” MOL said.

Japan’s Imabari had eleven 20,000 TEU containerships in its orderbook, as last reported in January.

The shipyard is building a large newbuilding dry dock of about 600m length x 80m breadth on the reclaimed land (about 100,000 m2) to accomodate construction of these leviathans.