REPORT: COSCO “IS RESEARCHING 9,000-TEU CONTAINERSHIPS”

REPORT: COSCO “IS RESEARCHING 9,000-TEU CONTAINERSHIPS”

REPORT: COSCO “IS RESEARCHING 9,000-TEU CONTAINERSHIPS”

   COSCO Container Lines may introduce very large containerships in the future when circumstances are right, a senior executive of the China Ocean Shipping Co. group said.

   “COSCO is researching 9,000-TEU or even bigger containerships at present and will doubtless invest in large containerships when the time is right,” Wei Jiafu, president and chief executive officer of the COSCO group, told the British newspaper Lloyd’s List.

   “Whilst there is a tendency to concentrate on the leading edge and very large ships, design and building of a new generation of very large containerships is out of the question,” he cautioned.

   COSCO’s biggest containerships today have a capacity of 5,446 TEUs, now substantially less than most of its major competitors on the east/west trades.

   COSCO Container Lines, the world’s seventh largest container shipping group, has not followed Maersk Sealand, P&O Nedlloyd, Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL, Mediterranean Shipping Co., CMA CGM and Malaysia International Shipping Corp. in ordering vessels of more than 6,500-TEU capacity.

   Several shipowners have said that they are considering designs for containerships of 9,000 TEUs or more.