China’s newly established shipping major, China COSCO Shipping Corporation (COSCOCS) has signed a contract with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) in Shanghai that will see the construction of ten 400,000-tonne VLOCs.
The ore carriers will be built by the group’s Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and are intended to be employed for ore transportation the group agreed on with Brazilian miner Vale. Under the 27-year agreement, the Chinese shipping giant committed to transport 16 million tons of iron ore for Vale on annual basis.
The newbuilds are slated for delivery between 2018 and 2019.
This is the second order the yard received for a batch of Valemaxes in just over a week, as China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) has placed an order for four VLOCs at the yard.
The order forms part of a series of ten 400,000 dwt VLOCs, where four more will be built by Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, and the remaining two are assigned to China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu).
As World Maritime News reported, Chinese shipping companies Cosco Group, China Merchants Group and ICBC Financial Leasing Co. are said to have stacked up orders for 30 Valemax ore carriers worth a total of USD 2.5 billion.
The trio is said to have ordered 10 ships respectively at local yards, namely Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, Beihai Shipbuilding, CIC Jiangsu and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
The 30-strong Valemax fleet is slated for completion and delivery in 2018.