December 4 - COSCO Shipping Co (COSCOL) has confirmed earlier reports that it will build four 36,000 dwt multipurpose vessels at CSSC Guangzhou Huangpu Shipbuilding at costs of CNY246million (USD40 million) each.
The delivery dates for the newbuildings was not revealed by COSCOL, which announced the order during a contract signing ceremony held at the Guangzhou Ocean Plaza, attended by senior management from both the shipping line and the shipyard, as can be seen from the picture.
Readers may recall that in July COSCO Shipping confirmed that its Hong Kong subsidiary had placed an order for four multipurpose vessels with Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering (NACKS).
This earlier quartet will also each have a capacity of 36,000 dwt and will cost overall USD134.6 million.
These orders are part of COSCO's fleet renewal programme and are in addition to an earlier order for eight multipurpose ships, two of which have been delivered and are in service already as reported on this website on July 22.
The first two vessels of the next four are scheduled for delivery in 2015 and the next two in 2016, as explained in full in the article in the July/August edition of HLPFI.
