WITH declining freight rates and with the world's carriers going through a rough patch financially, attention is being turned to the huge volume of box ship deliveries between now and the end of the year due to swell the ranks of the Cosco fleet.
According to Alphaliner, the Chinese state-backed carrier is due to receive a total of eleven 19,000 TEU to 21,000 TEU megamax ships, and seven ships ranging in capacity from 13,800 TEU to 14,500 TEU by the end of this year. All of these will be built in China, albeit by different shipyards.
Alphaliner's latest weekly report carries a recent photo from Jiangnan Changxing Shipyard which shows three types of Cosco newbuildings at the outfitting pier. They include 13,800 TEU 'flower' class ships, 14,568 TEU 'mountain' class vessels and one 21,237 TEU megamax of the 'universe' class.
'That picture should be on board room walls in Copenhagen and Sorrento,' one seasoned liner executive said on condition on anonymity, referring to the headquarters of Maersk and MSC respectively.
'Cosco's 'megamax' programme is made up of different vessel classes, since it is not only split across various shipyards (CSSC, CISC and COSCO, KHI), but it also originates from before the carrier's merger with CSCL and each of the two hitherto separate shipping lines ordered slightly different vessel classes,' Alphaliner explained in its latest weekly report.
With its takeover of Hong Kong's OOCL due to be completed very soon, Cosco is likely to leapfrog fellow Ocean Alliance member CMA CGM into third spot behind MSC and Maersk in the global liner rankings. The heads of both Maersk and MSC have hit out in recent months at Asian lines and their ability to tap state funds to expand their fleets.
In a poll carried out earlier this year two thirds of Singapore's Splash 247 readers believed Cosco will overhaul Maersk to become the world's largest containerline within the next 10 years. Cosco's huge expansion this year comes at a time where loss making Maersk Line is actually reducing its operating capacity for the first time this decade.
Both Evergreen and Hyundai Merchant Marine have larger orderbooks than Cosco, but no carrier has such a heavy delivery schedule this year as the Chinese carrier.
According to Alphaliner, the Chinese state-backed carrier is due to receive a total of eleven 19,000 TEU to 21,000 TEU megamax ships, and seven ships ranging in capacity from 13,800 TEU to 14,500 TEU by the end of this year. All of these will be built in China, albeit by different shipyards.
Alphaliner's latest weekly report carries a recent photo from Jiangnan Changxing Shipyard which shows three types of Cosco newbuildings at the outfitting pier. They include 13,800 TEU 'flower' class ships, 14,568 TEU 'mountain' class vessels and one 21,237 TEU megamax of the 'universe' class.
'That picture should be on board room walls in Copenhagen and Sorrento,' one seasoned liner executive said on condition on anonymity, referring to the headquarters of Maersk and MSC respectively.
'Cosco's 'megamax' programme is made up of different vessel classes, since it is not only split across various shipyards (CSSC, CISC and COSCO, KHI), but it also originates from before the carrier's merger with CSCL and each of the two hitherto separate shipping lines ordered slightly different vessel classes,' Alphaliner explained in its latest weekly report.
With its takeover of Hong Kong's OOCL due to be completed very soon, Cosco is likely to leapfrog fellow Ocean Alliance member CMA CGM into third spot behind MSC and Maersk in the global liner rankings. The heads of both Maersk and MSC have hit out in recent months at Asian lines and their ability to tap state funds to expand their fleets.
In a poll carried out earlier this year two thirds of Singapore's Splash 247 readers believed Cosco will overhaul Maersk to become the world's largest containerline within the next 10 years. Cosco's huge expansion this year comes at a time where loss making Maersk Line is actually reducing its operating capacity for the first time this decade.
Both Evergreen and Hyundai Merchant Marine have larger orderbooks than Cosco, but no carrier has such a heavy delivery schedule this year as the Chinese carrier.