Taiwan's Evergreen Marine and its affiliates have signed syndicated loan worth US$824 million to fund the purchase of ten 8,800-TEU newbuildings from China Shipbuilding Corporation (CSBC) of Taiwan, according to Transport Weekly, citing the Shipping Gazette.
The loan was signed with a consortium of nine banks led by the Bank of Taiwan, according to the Shipping Gazette.
The container shipping sector has total funding requirements of $57 billion for new vessel capital expenditure of the next four years, according to Alphaliner's estimates based on the existing orderbook.
The order for the ten 8,800-TEU ships at CSBC was placed in May 2011 and the deal came after Taiwanese shipbuilder lost two similar orders from Evergreen to South Korean rival Samsung HI in July and September last year. It was the first order placed by Evergreen at CSBC since 1997, with the Taiwanese carrier favouring Japanese and Korean shipyards for its newbuilding orders until this year.
The new Evergreen L-class ships will have an overall length of 334.8 metres, a beam of 45.8 metres and a maximum draft of 14.2 metres. Although they were declared by Evergreen as 8,000-TEU vessels, their dimensions are consistent with 8,800-TEU designs, said Alphaliner, adding that the order at CSBC is worth $1.03 billion and deliveries are scheduled to start in September 2013.
The ships will follow the first batch of 10 similarly-sized vessels from Samsung HI, due from July 2012. Three of the 10 CSBC ships will be built for EMC, while four vessels will be built for Evergreen Marine (UK) Ltd and the remaining three for Evergreen Marine (Singapore) Ltd.
Source: Transport Weekly