Hamburg Süd: In mid-October the company took delivery of the new 3,868 teu and 42,564gt container ship Cap Cleveland after deferring the handover date by around two months. Hamburg Sud phased the ship into its WCNA to Australia and New Zealand service, jointly offered with CMA CGM and ANL. On this loop, the new ship will replace the 3,104 teu and 35,824gt/2007 built Cap Egmont. Comp-leted sistership Cap Coral will follow when required.
Triple E No.4: The 18,270 TEU Marie Maersk was delivered at the end of October ready for a voyage to Russia on 27th October to take advantage of cheaper bunker prices at Vostochniy. Around two weeks prior to this the 13,208 TEU and 141,003gt NYK Hyperion, unit number eight in a series of ten neo-panamax ships ordered in March 2011 by OOCL, was delivered. The ship joined the G6-Alliance’s Far East to Europe service Loop, where she replaced the 10,660 TEU and 128,929gt APL Yangshan built in 2012.

Ever Growing: On 1st November it was announced that the Evergreen Group had taken delivery of the UK-registered 9,200 TEU and 100,254gt container ship Ever Linking. The vessel is the 16th of 30 units in the carrier’s series of new L-class ships and the second vessel of the series that was built at CSBC Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Evergreen had decided to split the 30-strong series of new L-class ships between the South Korean yards Samsung Heavy Industries (20 ships) and CSBC Kaohsiung (10 units). The latest ship will phase in to the CES Far East to Northern Europe service, where several of the new L-class units are to replace the last remaining 7,024 TEU Evergreen S-class ships. Evergreen has also played down the fact that such a large order of ships will worsen the global overcapacity in the box market. Ship owners in this segment of the industry continue to scrap ever-younger ships to curb their losses and consolidate their fleets with panamax-sized vessels bearing the brunt of the onslaught. Most likely to be scrapped are un-geared panama boxships in the 3,000 teu-5,000 TEU size range that offer fewer economics of scale than larger ships and have less choice of trades as smaller regional ports cannot handle them. To date in 2013 60% of the total demolished boxship capacity has been panamax-sized, amounting to 192,000 TEU. The average age of ships scrapped this year is 22 years old with the youngest in 2013 being the 1,700 TEU and 24,836gt/2000 built Soraya of Comanav.

FSG Diversifies: German shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) has shown its mettle in the offshore market following the launch of the Amazon Warrior on 8th November. Once it was ferries that gave FSG an international reputation for excellence but now it is ultra-modern specialist ships. Hull No. FSG 760 is the first of two 127 metre long offshore seismic vessels for the WesternGeco.

Maersk Tankers has confirmed that it has ordered four new medium range product tankers, with options for a further two, from South Korean shipyard Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. The vessels are scheduled to be delivered in 2016. Kleven has signed a contract with Østensjø Rederi in Haugesund, Norway, for the building of a 150m long offshore construction vessel with a total contract value of NOK 1.4 billion, making it the largest contract ever for Kleven. The highly advanced vessel of SALT 304 OCV design will be equipped with a 400t crane, a 70t crane and is to be delivered from Kleven Verft in Ulsteinvik, Norway in Q1 2016.

Ulstein Updates: The shipbuilder’s latest order from Vroon Offshore Services pushes the total number of offshore ship designs sold by the firm past the 100 mark. This milestone has been achieved in just 14 years, with 74 of the contracts signed for the company’s trailblazing X–BOW® design, launched in 2005. In total 25 different ship owners have ordered Ulstein designs, with 16 different shipyards building the vessels. A total of 62 have been built at yards worldwide, while 38 have been built at their own yard, UlsteinVerft, on the west coast of Norway. The latest contract for two PX121 PSVs (ship numbers 100 and 101) will be constructed at the COSCO (Guangdong) shipyard in China. Earlier in 2013, Vroon committed to two of the same PX121 design and equipment deals, with an option for a further two. Each of Vroon’s four PSVs is scheduled for delivery in 2015 and intended for operation in European waters. Measuring 83.4 metres in length, with a beam of 18 metres, they boast a rectangular cargo deck of 830 square metres and a load capacity of 4,200 dwt. The Brazilian ship owning company Oceana Offshore will be building two platform supply vessels (PSV) with an option for two additional vessels based on Ulstein’s PX105 design. Both vessels will be built at the new Oceana Shipyard in Itajai, Brazil, and are scheduled for delivery in April and May 2016 respectively. Finally, Heerema Marine Contractors’ new 50,228gt/2012 built Deepwater Construction Vessel Aegir, a customised Ulstein SOC 5000 design developed by Ulstein Sea of Solutions, has won the Dutch KVNR Shipping Award. The state-of-the-art vessel is designed for world-wide operations and suited for executing complex infrastructure and pipeline projects in ultra-deep water.