26 July 2023 (Lloyd's List) - MEDITERRANEAN Shipping Co is continuing to add secondhand vessels to its armada of containerships to bring its total tally of purchases to more than 300 vessels ships in the past three years.
According to Alphaliner, the world’s largest operator of boxships has recently purchased one baby post-panamax, one panamax and a regional feeder vessel from the secondhand market.
They comprise the 4,500 teu baby post-panamax Maersk Launceston which has been purchased from German shipowner John T. Essberger. The 2005-built vessel, originally named the DAL Kalahari, has been on time charter to Maersk since 2014 and was latterly serving in the North Europe to west coast South America trades. It is the last containership in the Essberger fleet and comes after the Hamburg-based company sold its non-core liner operating division Deutsche Afrika-Linien to Hapag-Lloyd last year to allow Essberger to focus on its main chemical tanker business.
MSC is also said to have purchased the 4,892 teu panamax boxship Zhong Gu Jiang Su from China’s Shanghai Zhonggu Shipping Group and the 2,500 teu capacity Sheffield from Greek non-operating owner Conbulk. No prices were disclosed for these sales which are understood to have been transacted under private terms.
With these latest purchases, MSC has now acquired 318 boxships from the secondhand market since the company began its buying spree in August 2020, according to data tracked by Alphaliner.
With the exception of MSC’s activities in the market, the boxship sale and purchase sector has been quiet of late as prices have begun to head downwards after they normalised from the record high prices reached in late 2021.
Shipbroker Braemar said that summer holidays were now starting to reduce activity. “The mood feels very summery in the container market at the moment yet there is still some enquiry in certain segments but the majority of the key players remain quiet. Given the continuing decline of periods available for charter, it is unsurprising that asset prices continue to correct downwards, contributing to the muted levels of activity we are currently seeing.”
Containership asset prices are understood to have fallen by between 8% and 16% in the past few weeks with larger vessels being most affected by the decline, according to Braemar data.
The only other recent sale of note confirmed was the 6,300 teu capacity MH Hamburg which has been sold by Norway’s Uthalden AS to German non-operating owner Foroohari Schiffahrts for $32m. According to Alphaliner the 2009-built ship is on hire to MSC until the second quarter of 2025, with the remainder of the charter being included in the sale.
