On June 2, during the Posidonia 2026 International Maritime Exhibition in Greece, China State Shipbuilding Corporation Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding, together with China Shipbuilding Industry Trading Co., Ltd., held a signing ceremony with OceanV Maritime of Greece to officially confirm the validity of the last two optional vessels in the second batch of 2+2 “Honghu” type 1900TEU feeder container ships.
On April 2, Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding announced that it had signed a contract with Greek shipowner Venergy Maritime to build 2+2 “Honghu” 1900TEU feeder container ships. The two vessels that have now come into effect are the two optional vessels in this order.
It is understood that Venergy Maritime and OceanV Maritime are both subsidiaries of the Greek Vyron Vasileiadis Group (V Group), responsible for the group’s tanker and container ship operations, respectively. As a long-term strategic partner of the Suez Canal Authority, V Group possesses extensive port operations resources in the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and Egypt.
In recent years, OceanV Maritime’s fleet has grown rapidly. Since first entering the Chinese shipbuilding market in late 2025, the company has secured two consecutive orders totaling eight new vessels, all of which will be built by Huangpu Wenchong.
Both orders were for 2+2 vessels each. In addition to the four vessels mentioned earlier that have already been confirmed, the first batch of 2+2 new vessels was announced in December 2025, and the option vessels were confirmed in February 2026. Based on market reports, the construction cost per vessel for this batch is approximately $30 million; based on this figure, the total cost for the eight vessels is approximately $240 million.
Regarding the contracted vessel type, Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding stated that its independently developed “Honghu” 1,900 TEU vessel has become a flagship product in the global feeder container ship sector, with its outstanding loading efficiency, excellent port adaptability, and remarkable green and energy-saving performance, and is widely deployed on major feeder routes. Since its debut in 2020, this vessel type has undergone continuous iterations and optimizations, winning the favor of an increasing number of leading shipowners thanks to its superior quality.