COSCO to charter Seaspan’s 13,100-TEU ships

COSCO to charter Seaspan’s 13,100-TEU ships New York-listed Seaspan Corp. has joined the summer stampede for mega-ships by signing contracts to build eight new 13,100-TEU boxships with Hyundai Heavy Industries and its subsidiary, Hyundai Samho, with Chinese carrier COSCO Container Lines agreeing a long-term charter deal for the ships.
   The contract price per vessel is about $165 million resulting in an expected delivered cost per vessel of about $181 million.
   The ships will be delivered from January to October 2011 when COSCO will take the vessels on 12-year time charters at a rate of $55,000 per vessel per day for the duration of the contract.
   “Building on the success of our agreement to charter eight new 8,500-TEU vessels in April of 2007, we are pleased to further strengthen this strategic relationship with COSCO,” said Gerry Wang, Seaspan’s chief executive officer. “In addition, we believe this transaction for super-sized container vessels demonstrates Seaspan’s ability to conduct large-scale, cost-efficient deals in this important asset class.”
   Seaspan Management Services Ltd. will supervise the construction of the vessels and then operate the ships at an estimated fixed rate of $6,750 per day per vessel from delivery.
   Upon delivery, Seaspan anticipates each new vessel will contribute more than $17 million in incremental EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) per annum for a total exceeding $136 million for all eight vessels.
   Seaspan said it would initially fund the first installments of the order through its existing $1.3 billion revolving credit facility. Permanent financing for this transaction is expected to be concluded in the following months.