COSCO signs agreement for 42 bulk carriers
COSCO SHIPPING Development has signed an investment, construction and leasing agreement for 42 bulk carriers on 30th August. This milestone marks the largest shipbuilding and leasing transaction since the company transformed into a shipping industry and finance operator in 2016, according to the company's release.
According to the transaction, the company will entrust a subsidiary of COSCO SHIPPING Heavy Industry to invest in the construction of 20 bulk carriers and CSSC Chengxi to invest in the construction of 22 bulk carriers, including five 64,000-ton ships, two 82,000-ton ships and 35 80,000-ton ships, with a total ship order value of more than RMB 14.3 billion. These ships will be delivered in succession from 2026 to 2027 and will be leased to COSCO SHIPPING Bulk for a long term. The ships in this transaction are energy-saving and environmentally friendly green ships, some of which are methanol-ready environmentally friendly bulk carriers.
In the face of the ship leasing market with both challenges and opportunities in recent years, COSCO SHIPPING Development has actively seized the opportunity of the green and low-carbon transformation of the shipping industry, studied and explored the market potential in the sub-sectors, and accurately matched customer needs to provide solutions.
As an industry and finance operator focusing on the main line of the shipping and logistics industry, the company currently owns more than 140 ships and has layouts in multiple sub-sectors such as container ships, bulk carriers, and multi-purpose pulp ships. Through this transaction, the scale of the company's high-quality ship assets will leap forward significantly, after the company ordered bulk carriers and multi-purpose pulp ships in the early stage.
China COSCO SHIPPING Corporation Limited is an SOE headquartered in Shanghai. It is the merged entity of China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO) and China Shipping (Group) Company (China Shipping).
As of Dec 31, 2023, the total fleet of COSCO SHIPPING comprises of 1,325 vessels, ranking No.1 in the world. Its container fleet capacity is 3.08 million TEU, ranking the fourth in the world. Its dry bulk fleet (430 vessels / 44.11 million DWT), tanker fleet (225 vessels / 29.43 million DWT) and general and specialized cargo fleet (152 vessels / 4.75 million DWT) are all topping the world’s list.
COSCO SHIPPING (Europe) GmbH is the regional management company of the China COSCO SHIPPING Corporation in the European Region. The predecessor of this company, formerly known as 'COSCO Europe GmbH', was the representative office of COSCO in Hamburg and registered and founded on February 15th, 1989, by the original COSCO Group in Hamburg, Germany. It was the first regional management company set up overseas by the COSCO Group.
The company's business administration extends from Europe to North Africa, the Mediterranean and the region along the Black Sea, covering 64 countries in total. The scope of business comprises container transportation, break bulk cargo transportation, logistics services, terminal operations, ship technical services and ship fuel supply, etc. The company has 15 daughter companies in 12 countries, of which some are wholly owned and some are joint-venture companies. They are located in China, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Turkey, Romania, Greece and Egypt.
