Arkas Holding, Turkey’s largest container ship owner, has returned to order container ships from Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, bringing its total new ship orders at Huangpu Wenchong to 12 (including options) at a cost of $660 million. This is another sign of the buoyancy of China’s new shipbuilding industry.
According to Trade Winds, Arkas has signed a contract with Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding for the construction of 4+2 3,100 TEU feeder container ships at a cost of about $50 million each, plus an option order for six new ships totaling $300 million (about RMB 2.165 billion), which are expected to be delivered in 2028. The new vessels are of environmentally friendly design and the option order is expected to take effect later this year.
This is not the first cooperation between Arkas and Huangpu Wenchong for up to 6 3100TEU feeder container ships. In 2024, Arkas made another appearance in the newbuilding market after eight years, announcing an order for six 4,300 TEU container ships at Huangpu Wenchong, with a single-vessel cost of about $60 million and a total value of $360 million. Including this new order, if the option order takes effect, the total price of the 12 ships will reach $660 million (about RMB 4.76 billion), which is the first large-scale fleet renewal plan of Arkas since 2016.
Huangpu Wenchong is the largest shipbuilder in South China with rich experience in repairing and shipbuilding, and feeder container ships, commercial cargo ships, dredgers, offshore engineering vessels and research vessels are the representative products of its civil product construction segment.
The 4300TEU container ship ordered by Arkas last year was the largest container ship undertaken by Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding at that time. The first ship order came from Thailand’s Honghai Container Transport. With the order from Honghai Container Transport, Huangpu Wenchong entered the medium-sized container ship construction market.
Data show that Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding currently holds orders for more than 100 ships, with nearly 50% of the orders for feeder container ships. So far this year, Huangpu Wenchong has received four 1,900 TEU feeder container ships from German shipowner Elbdeich Reederei, which is the first order for containerships in 2025; and two 9,200 TEU container ships from Greek shipowner Danaos Corporation.
It is reported that Arkas is a well-known comprehensive group company in Turkey with logistics and shipping as its main businesses. Its subsidiary Arkas Line is a liner company specializing in container transportation, with business scope spanning the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, West and North Africa, Northern Europe, the East Coast of America and the Red Sea. According to the official website, Arkas Line’s fleet currently consists of 49 container ships, and Alphaliner ranks it as the 34th largest liner company in the world.