Chinese shipbuilder wins contract for Seaspan fuel-saving containerships

Canadian company, Seaspan Corporation, has reiterated that it has entered a shipbuilding contract with CSBC Corporation Taiwan (CSBC) for five 14,000 TEU class containerships.

The vessels will be constructed using Seaspan's fuel efficient SAVER design. The design incorporates hull lines that have been developed by the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) and the Marine Design and Research Institute of China (MARIC).

Earlier this year, Seaspan signed contracts with two other Chinese shipbuilders for the construction of container vessels designed to the SAVER specification.

The five vessels are being built in preparation for long-term, fixed-rate time charter contracts with Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. (Yang Ming) in Taiwan.

The vessels have an aggregate purchase price of approximately $550 million and are scheduled for delivery in 2016.

The order reflects a growing trend of Chinese shipyards to build vessels with fuel-efficient design and features.

The Finnish ship design consultancy, Deltamarin, has outsourced building of its fuel-efficient bulker design series to several Chinese yards in recent years. The company also received an order from Tianjin Xingang shipyard at the end of July for two efficient RORO pure car truck carriers it has designed.