Singapore: APL has finally embraced the super post panamax containership era. The Singaporean arm of NOL becomes the last of the top 15 liners to get into the ordering spree, having announced today its intention to build eight 10,000 teu class ships in South Korea for delivery by 2011. No specific yard was mentioned in a company release.
NOL said the deal would cost around US$1bn, 'subject to the satisfactory completion of contractual terms and documentation'. Each ship has a design speed of more than 26 knots and the company will deploy the new ships on the Asia-Europe trade.
Latest AXS Marine figures show APL has a global market box slot share of 3.2% with 361,151 slots, giving it ninth place in the world rankings.
APL and its New World Alliance partners MOL and HMM were all slow to focus on the mega boxship ordering rush but now all three have entered the race. [28/06/07]
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