Thai intra-Asia carrier Regional Container Lines (RCL) is growing its involvement with larger vessels.

RCL has ordered a pair of 12,000 TEU container ships from Nihon Shipyard, a joint venture between Imabari Shipbuilding and Japan Marine United Corporation.

Scheduled for delivery in August and December 2024, each ship is priced at US$133 million, which when compared with similar newbuilding resales purchased by RCL from Imabari last year, shows that construction prices of such ships have been hiked by around 16%. The first 12,000 TEU pair will be delivered between September 2022 and January 2023.

While the vessels RCL bought from Imabari have been chartered to ZIM for five years upon their deliveries, the Thai operator stated that the ships commissioned at Nihon will be for its own use. It is likely that these ships will be assigned to the East Asia/Southeast Asia-Persian Gulf routes.

Martina Li

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