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SINGAPORE—Nep- tune Orient Lines Ltd.,Singapore’s
largest publicly listed shipping company, plans to order
eight container ships valued at about $1 billion to add
to its fleet of vessels moving container cargo to Europe
from Asia.
The
vessels, each with a capacity of 10,000 standard
twenty-foot equivalent boxes, will be the largest in its
fleet. They will be delivered in 2011, Singapore-based
Neptune Orient said in a statement to the city’s stock
exchange last week.
Neptune
Orient, which has chartered or purchased second-hand
vessels, is ordering new ships for the first time in
five years. The company wants to add bigger vessels and
expand the fleet on expectations that global economic
growth will spur demand for shipments of products.
“Neptune
is probably expecting volumes to rise in the future,’’
said Rohan Suppiah, an analyst at Kim Eng Research Pte.
in
Singapore.
Freight rates “may have reached the bottom.’’
Neptune
Orient said June 25 its average revenue per 40-foot
container box rose 2 percent to $2,618 between May 5 and
June 1, from $2,556 a year earlier. It handled 178,300
boxes in the period, 11 percent more than a year
earlier.
The
ships will be made in
South Korea,
the company said without saying who will build them. The
vessels will add to a fleet of more than 100 ships and
will be used by APL Ltd., its container shipping unit.
The
operator of Asia’s fourth-largest container-shipping
line last month posted its smallest quarterly profit in
four years, as lower rates eroded gains from higher
volumes. The company said rates have increased for some
trade lanes, including Asia-Europe, which may boost
second-half earnings.
Container shipping capacity is expected to reach a
record 12 million 20-foot standard containers in 2008,
20 percent more than this year. --Bloomberg |
