Four! The largest privately-owned shipping company receives its first South Korean feeder vessel order.

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding wins feeder container ship order from South Korean shipping company CK Line.

According to foreign media reports, CK Line recently placed an order with Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group for 2+2 1100TEU container ships. The new ships are expected to be delivered in July and August 2027, with the optional orders to be delivered later in 2027 upon activation. Each new ship costs approximately US\$23 million, with a total transaction value of approximately US\$92 million (approximately RMB 659 million).

For reference, Clarksons' data shows that the price of a newly built 1000-1200TEU container ship is currently around US\$24.5 million, unchanged from the same period last year.

This is CK Line's first newbuilding order since ordering two 2700TEU container ships from Huangpu Wenchong in September 2023.

It is understood that CK Line, founded in 1962, is a South Korean shipping company operating container and bulk cargo transportation services in the China-Japan-Korea and Asian regions. The company rarely orders new ships and is not active in the second-hand ship market. Its last newbuilding order was signed with Huangpu Wenchong in September 2023, when CK Line ordered two 2700TEU container ships. The first ship, "Sky Peace", is expected to be delivered this November, and the second in February next year.

Alphaliner's data shows that CK Line currently operates 16 container ships, including 8 owned and 8 chartered-in vessels, mainly small container ships of 700TEU, 1100TEU and 1800TEU, with a total capacity of 10543TEU, ranking 52nd globally. According to Clarksons' data, all of the company's currently operating container ships were built by Japanese and South Korean shipbuilders. The two new ships under construction at Huangpu Wenchong are the only container ships in its fleet from Chinese shipbuilders.

In recent years, CK Line has been expanding its East Asian service network. In May this year, the company launched a weekly liner service between Busan Port, South Korea and Vladivostok, Russia.

For Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, the CK Line order is its first order for sub-2000TEU feeder container ships since July 2022. In recent years, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding's container ship orders have mainly been for medium and large-sized vessels. Last year, among the 68 container ship orders received by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, as many as 28 were 17000TEU, in addition to 17 13000TEU, 16 9000TEU, 5 8000TEU and 2 4300TEU.

Entering 2025, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding's container ship order intake slowed down, and all were for small and medium-sized vessels. In the first five months, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding only received four container ship orders, including two 3000TEU vessels ordered by Hai An Transportation and Stevedoring Joint Stock Company (HAH) of Vietnam and two 4488TEU vessels ordered by Regional Container Lines (RCL) of Thailand.

Newbuilding orders for feeder container ships have surged this year. According to Clarksons' data, in the first six months of this year, newbuilding orders for 1000-1999TEU feeder vessels totaled 29, more than half of the 50 vessels ordered throughout last year; orders for 2000-2999TEU feeder vessels reached 20, while last year's total was only 13.

Public data shows that as of May 22, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group had an order backlog of 230 vessels with a corrected gross tonnage of 8.73 million and a value of US\$23.19 billion (approximately RMB 167.068 billion), including 110 container ships worth US\$15.9 billion, 65 oil tankers worth US\$3.28 billion, 26 LNG/LPG/VLAC/VLEC vessels worth US\$2.38 billion, and 39 bulk carriers worth US\$1.63 billion. The product structure has been further optimized, with clean energy vessel orders accounting for approximately 74% of the total value. The production schedule for the backlog extends to 2030.