China COSCO enters wave of ship purchase

China COSCO Holdings, the country's largest shipping conglomerate, singed contracts with two Chinese shipyards to buy four 64,000 deadweight ton bulk vessels and five 308,000 dwt very large crude carriers (VLCC) in a bid to upgrade its vast fleet.

This is China COSCO's first purchase of new vessels in five years.

The bulk vessel deal was singed with CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Co on Monday, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp. The price for each ship was 654 million yuan ($108 million), the company said on its website.

At the same time, China COSCO placed another order for a VLCC with Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co, a major shipyard of China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, after it placed orders for another four VLCCs last week. But the company didn't disclose the price of the vessels.

A key factor for these orders was China's new subsidy policy to encourage the nation's shipping companies to reduce the number of aging vessels and replace them with technically advanced vessels.