John T Essberger exercises shipbuilding options at Yangfan

The options were part of a firm order for four sister vessels that John T Essberger booked at the Chinese shipbuilding group in March 2013.

Financial details of the shipbuilding deal were not disclosed.

The newbuildings are scheduled to be delivered to the shipowner in December 2015 and January 2016.

The two container vessels will be built at Yangfan Group's Zhejiang East Coast Shipbuilding. Yangfan Group owns four more subsidiary yard, namely Zhoushan Shipyard, Zhoushan Dashenzhou Shipbuilding, Qingdao Yangfan Shipbuilding and Zhejiang Yangfan General-use Machinery Manufacturing Co.

Earlier this year, Polish shipowner Polska Zegluga has approached Yangfan Group to build eight open hatch bulk carriers.