Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line, now a unit of China’s Cosco Shipping, has ordered five 23,000-TEU container ships from two Cosco yards at an en-bloc price of $778.4 million. Three of the vessels will be built by Nantong Cosco KHI Ship Engineering and two by Dalian Cosco KHI Ship Engineering.
The five vessels are scheduled to be delivered between the first and fourth quarters of 2023 as the Chinese company moves forward with its plan to expand its fleet by nearly 50 percent to the one million TEU capacity mark over the next three years.