bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

KAWASAKI Heavy Industries (KHI) of Japan has won an order from the China Ocean Shipping Co (COSCO) to build six of the world's largest containerships.

  Lloyd's List quoted KHI as saying it had won the US$500 million contract to build the 5,200 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) containerships after fierce competition for the order.

  Delivery of the six 280 metre long ships for the Chinese state shipping giant will begin from the end of 1996. Each vessel will have a speed of 24.5 knots.

  The ships will be built at the Sakaide works in western Japan.

  COSCO Hong Kong approached Kawasaki as well as other Japanese, German and Korean shipbuilders to negotiate for the order.

  The order is the second placed by COSCO with Kawasaki, which built the 3,800 TEU River Elegance at the Sakaide works.

  It was delivered on September 16.

  Kawasaki clinched the contract through the intermediary of Marubeni corporation, Japan's major general trading house.

  Since the beginning of the year, Japanese and foreign shipbuilders have received an increasing number of orders for large capacity boxships following an order by Sea-Land for the construction of 4,800 TEU boxships.

  Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries received orders for the construction of six 4,950 TEU containerships from Hong Kong's Overseas Orient Container Lines (OOCL) in March.

  South Korea's Hyundai Merchant Marine also placed orders for two 4,970 TEU vessels and two more on option, in May.

  The HMM ordered five 5,046 TEU containerships and two more on option, from Hyundai Heavy Industries in August, ushering in the era of 5,000 TEU boxships.

  Taiwan's Evergreen has also placed an order with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the construction of five 4,900 TEU containerships.

  Britain's P&O Containers is said to be considering plans to have nine 6,000 TEU boxships built.

  Meanwhile, the China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) has received new ship orders of 1.42 million deadweight tonnes (dwt) from overseas this year, up 40 per cent on last year, according to Xinhua (the New China News Agency).

  Zhang Zhaoqi, spokesman for CSSC, said that CSSC was predicted to build vessels totalling 1.5 million dwt this year, against last year's 1.32 million dwt.

  He said that this year, China's shipbuilding industry had made major breakthroughs in exporting to the ship-building giants of Japan and South Korea.

  Since its export of two 10,000 dwt ships to Japan last year, CSSC has sold newly designed lifeboats, anchors, diesel engine parts, large steel structures and other shipboard products to Japan and South Korea.

  CSSC had also recently developed markets such as Britain, France, Canada, Russia, Spain and Vietnam.

    , he added.

  China's ship exports include 150,000 dwt bulk carriers designed and built solely by itself.



Kawasaki to build vessels for COSCO