COSCO subsidiary orders 'mega-container' ships

Orient Overseas Container Line, a subsidiary of China's COSCO Shipping Group, has ordered five 23,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container vessels from two Chinese shipyards, marking another Chinese player joining the world's mega-container club.

The total value for these five container ships is 5.4 billion yuan ($776 million), COSCO Shipping Holdings Co, parent company of OOCL, announced in a statement on Wednesday morning.

The ships will be built by Jiangsu province-based Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co and Liaoning province-based Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co, two joint ventures between China COSCO Shipping Group and Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

Following global shipping giants, including MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company SA, CMA CGM and Hyundai Merchant Marine between 2017 and 2019, shipyards are holding orders for 36 mega container vessels with a capacity of 23,000 TEU across the world, according to data from British shipbuilding and marine analysis agency Clarkson Research Services.

The majority of these orders are held by South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries Co and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.