TMS Group, owned by Greek shipping magnate George Economou, is accelerating the expansion of its container ship fleet through a newbuilding program and has placed an additional order for up to 10 new dual-fuel vessels with a long-standing Chinese shipyard partner.
Recently, TMS Group has placed an additional order with Zhoushan Changhong International for 8+2 11,400 TEU LNG dual-fuel powered container ships, scheduled for delivery by 2028. This brings TMS Group’s total order with Zhoushan Changhong International to 18+2 11,400 TEU LNG dual-fuel powered container ships.
It is understood that the first batch of 10 LNG dual-fuel powered 10,000-TEU container ships was announced in February this year, with the disclosed unit price at that time being approximately $140 million per vessel. Although the price of the above-mentioned 8+2 newbuildings has not been disclosed, based on the construction cost at the beginning of the year, the total value of up to 20 newbuildings would be approximately $2.8 billion (equivalent to RMB 19.8 billion).
This container ship was independently developed by CIMC Ocean Engineering Design & Research Institute (CIMC ORIC) with full intellectual property rights. It has an overall length of 299 meters, a beam of 48.2 meters, and a depth of 27 meters.
According to incomplete statistics, including the latest orders, Zhoushan Changhong International has secured orders for 39+8 new vessels this year: 7+2 from the tanker market, including 6+2 LR2 product tankers for Greece’s Polembros Shipping and 1 MR2 product/chemical tanker for Greece’s Laskaridis Shipping; the remaining 32+6 are all from the container ship market. This indicates that Zhoushan Changhong International is one of the most active shipyards in the container newbuilding market this year.
Zhoushan Changhong International’s publicly announced container ship orders this year include: 6+4 ultra-large dual-fuel container ships for Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), 18+2 large dual-fuel container ships for TMS Group, 6 feeder container ships for Greece’s Costamare, and 2 container ships for Oceanbulk.
As the leading shipyard in the Zhoushan region, Changhong International has set up three major shipbuilding industry bases in Dinghai District, Putuo District and Daishan County of Zhoushan City, namely Zhoushan Changhong International Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (headquarters), Zhoushan Putuo Changhong Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. and Zhoushan Zhongji Changhong Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., which is a large shipbuilding industry enterprise in the whole industry chain integrating shipbuilding, ship repair, ship dismantling and metal resource utilization.
The three bases have a total investment of more than 10 billion yuan, cover an area of more than 650 million square meters, a total coastline of more than 20000 meters, an annual shipbuilding capacity of more than 5 million deadweight tons, and an annual ship repair capacity of more than 500 ships. The three bases are adjacent to the International Golden Waterway and across the sea from Shanghai Yangshan Port. Wide water depth, convenient transportation, unique geographical location.
It is worth noting that among the 18+2 new buildings contracted between Zhoushan Changhong International and TMS Group, only the initial 10 vessels secured long-term charter agreements at the beginning of the year. It remains unclear whether the latest 8+2 vessels will be able to immediately secure charter contracts.
Data shows that as one of Greece’s largest shipowners, George Economou’s shipping company currently operates over 100 vessels and has approximately 40 newbuilds under construction at Chinese and South Korean shipyards, covering the three major vessel types: tankers, bulk carriers and gas carriers.
Currently, George Economou’s fleet does not operate any container ships. To achieve diversification, the shipowner is expanding its container ship order portfolio to establish a comprehensive presence across the entire shipping industry chain. The latest speculative orders placed with Zhoushan Changhong International also underscore George Economou’s sustained confidence in the container ship market amid global uncertainties.