COSCO SHIPPING Development has signed an investment, construction and leasing agreement for 42 bulk carriers on 30th August. This milestone marks the largest shipbuilding and leasing transaction since the company transformed into a shipping industry and finance operator in 2016.
According to the transaction, the company will entrust a subsidiary of COSCO SHIPPING Heavy Industry to invest in the construction of 20 bulk carriers and CSSC Chengxi to invest in the construction of 22 bulk carriers, including five 64,000-ton ships, two 82,000-ton ships and 35 80,000-ton ships, with a total ship order value of more than RMB 14.3 billion. These ships will be delivered in succession from 2026 to 2027 and will be leased to COSCO SHIPPING Bulk for a long term. The ships in this transaction are energy-saving and environmentally friendly green ships, some of which are methanol-ready environmentally friendly bulk carriers.
In the face of the ship leasing market with both challenges and opportunities in recent years, COSCO SHIPPING Development has actively seized the opportunity of the green and low-carbon transformation of the shipping industry, studied and explored the market potential in the sub-sectors, and accurately matched customer needs to provide solutions.
As an industry and finance operator focusing on the main line of the shipping and logistics industry, the company currently owns more than 140 ships and has layouts in multiple sub-sectors such as container ships, bulk carriers, and multi-purpose pulp ships. Through this transaction, the scale of the company’s high-quality ship assets will leap forward significantly, after the company ordered bulk carriers and multi-purpose pulp ships in the early stage. The company invested in high-quality shipping capacity with newer ship types, green and environmentally friendly, reasonable configuration and strong versatility, laying the foundation for further consolidating the high-quality assets of the company’s shipping leasing business, highlighting the strategic positioning of shipping industry and finance operators, and helping the company to accelerate its progress towards the goal of value-oriented industry and finance investors and innovative industry and finance service providers.