COSCO, PIL enter into 12-vessel charter agreement

Citing business needs, the Chinese ocean carrier will charter six vessels from Pacific International Lines (PIL), while the Singapore shipping line will lease six vessels from COSCO.    China’s COSCO Shipping Lines Co. and Singapore’s Pacific International Lines (PIL) have entered into a 12-vessel time-charter agreement “in view of business needs,” the companies said in a joint statement.
   The shipping companies said that the agreement was made in light of current ship deployment arrangements in the routes for southwestern U.S., New Zealand, Africa and India.
   COSCO Shipping Lines has leased one 6,500-TEU container vessel and five 4,250-TEU container vessels from PIL, while PIL has chartered six 5,500-TEU vessels from COSCO Shipping Lines. According to the two shipping lines, the 6,500-TEU Kota Cantik is chartered out to COSCO at a daily rate of $7,266 starting September 5, 2017 for the next seven months. 
   The five 4,250-TEU ships – the Kota Laju, Kota Layar, Kota Lambang, Kota Lumayan, and Kota Latif – are chartered out at a daily rate of $4,675 over the same period. The six ships chartered out to PIL – the COSCO Shanghai, Xin Xia Men, COSCO Antwerp, Xin Chang Shu, Xin Fu Zhou, and COSCO Hamburg – go for a daily rate of between $5,990 and $6,256 over the next eight months.
   “The transaction may resolve the difficulties faced by COSCO Shipping Lines for lack of suitable internal shipping capacity and the ‘ship hiring difficulty’ for specific ship type in the external ship leasing market, and to satisfy the above specific requirement for shipping route capacity by COSCO Shipping Lines,” said the Chinese carrier. “Meanwhile, by leasing surplus vessels, vessels of COSCO Shipping Lines will be properly deployed.”