WAN Hai Lines disclosed it has ordered six liquefied natural gas, dual-fuel boxships from a Chinese shipbuilder.

The 6,000 teu newbuildings have been contracted at CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding and are priced in the range of $75m to $82m per vessel, according to a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. Delivery dates for the vessels have not been disclosed.

The order is the first to be placed by Wan Hai at the shipyard and are the first LNG-ready ships to have been ordered by the Taipei-headquartered container line, which is the world’s 11th largest boxship operator.

The new tonnage boosts Wan Hai’s newbuilding backlog to 38 ships with a combined capacity of 390,000 teu.

Wan Hai has 124 containerships in service with a combined capacity of around 550,000 teu, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data.       

In addition to its latest newbuilding contract, the company has a dozen 16,000 teu ships on order, with six each being built by South Korean yards HD Hyundai Samho and Samsung Heavy Industries. 

Wan Hai also has a newbuilding backlog of 20 units of 8,000 teu, with HD Hyundai Samho building four of the ships while Taiwan’s CSBC is building 16.

Both the 16,000 teu ships and the 8,000 teu vessels, which were contracted in 2024, are of methanol dual-fuel-ready specification.

CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding has boxship orders in hand for other owners, and include four 1,900 teu vessels for German tonnage provider Elbdeich Reederei, which were signed in August. 

In addition, the yard is building four 3,100 teu vessels and the same number of 4,300 teu boxships for Turkish container line Arkas and six 2,400 teu vessels for Evergreen Group subsidiary Italia Marittima.