NYK TO CHARTER TWO 6,200-TEU BOXSHIPS

NYK TO CHARTER TWO 6,200-TEU BOXSHIPS    NYK said that will deploy two new 6,200-TEU container vessels under a charter agreement from 2003 on.
   The vessels will have a speed of 25 knots and will be identical to NYK’s existing 6,200-TEU vessels.
   “With the already-announced nine sister vessels, NYK’s cumulative order of the 6,200 TEU-class container vessel has reached eleven,” a spokesman for NYK said.
   The two vessels will be built by the Japanese shipyard Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., and will be employed through a long-term charter arrangement. They will replace older vessels in the Asia/Europe and transpacific loops of NYK and other carriers of the Grand Alliance, from the second half of 2003.
   NYK’s orders are the latest in a series of new moves by large shipping lines to build and charter very large containerships via non-operating charter owners.