Vessels are being built at the Samsung Heavy Industries Co. shipyard. in Geoje, South Korea.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg
A large carrier blocking one of the busiest waterways in the world has done little to prevent shipping companies from ordering vessels of the same size.
Korea shipbuilding & coastal engineering company and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. announced – two of the world’s three largest shipbuilders – won orders worth 3.45 trillion in total ($ 3 billion) on Friday to build 25 vessels that are longer than the Eiffel Tower. The vessels will be delivered by 2025.
The container received an Ever Given container stuck across Egypt’s Suez Canal early Tuesday and efforts are still ongoing to remove it. The vessel can haul more than 20,100 steel boxes, making it one of the largest shipping vessels in the world. Such raspberry vessels help move about 90% of global trade by sea.
Korea’s shipbuilding will build five vessels capable of carrying 13,200 20-foot boxes for Taiwan South Korean-based Ulsan company Wan Hai Lines Ltd. said in an email statement Friday. The vessels will be delivered starting from the first half of 2023.
Samsung Heavy will build 20 vessels capable of carrying 15,000 boxes, the only largest shipbuilding contract won at 2.81 trillion won, the shipyard said in a separate statement Friday. These vessels will be delivered to an anonymous buyer in Panama by June 2025.
Globally, there are about 180 ships that can carry more than 15,000 boxes, according to Um Kyung-a, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities Co. in Seoul. At least 47 more ultra-large vessels are expected to be delivered by 2024, according to research firm Drewry.
Orders for mega-large vessels have been going up this year after the lines saw their profits jump in 2020. Global trade has recovered to pre-pandemic levels as the coronavirus stimulated demand great for household goods. There is a congestion of ports from Los Angeles to Rotterdam as Covid affected land transportation and port loading and unloading operations.
Bottles had spread to the U.S. west coast around the world and prompted a jump in rates. Spot rates for towing a 40-foot vessel to Los Angeles from Shanghai nearly fell last year, according to the World Container Index.