GERMAN container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd has sold seven
9,326 TEU container ships to China's Bank of Communications
Financial Leasing (Bocomm Leasing) for
an undisclosed price.
It's understands that the en bloc
sale for the vessels, Cauquenes,
Cautin, Cisnes, Cochrane, Coyhaique, Corcovado and
Copiapo, was agreed early in
May 2020 and July, the vessels were re-registered to special purpose vehicles
owned by Bocomm
Leasing.
At the time of the sale, each
vessel had a market valuation of around US$74 million, according to brokers,
reports Container News, Jacksonville.
The ships, operated by
Hapag-Lloyd's Chilean subsidiary Compania
Sudamericana de Vapores (CSAV) on Asia-South America services, were built by Samsung
Heavy Industries between 2014 and 2015.
A spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd
said that the German liner operator is leasing back all the vessels. "As
part of our 'Performance Safeguarding Programme', we were able to get these
ships into extremely attractive financing and generated a good amount of
liquidity. The ships are leased back by us on a long-term charter and can be
taken over again by us at the end of the lease term."
The lease duration for these
vessels has been agreed at 12 years.
Hapag-Lloyd's
Performance Safeguarding Programme,
launched this year in response to the pandemic, consists of cost-saving
measures to tackle the impact on cargo volumes. Additionally, the company wants
to secure liquidity and re-evaluate investment plans.
Despite the challenging situation
facing liner operators, Bocomm Leasing has been acquiring container ships since
the start of 2020.
In June, the Chinese finance
lessor acquired five 12,690 TEU ships from Greek tonnage provider Costamare; In
March, Bocomm Leasing purchased four 11,923 TEU ships from Canadian owner
Seaspan Corporation. During the same month, Bocomm Leasing acquired two 9,954
TEU ships and two 8,204 TEU ships from Navios Maritime, which were chartered to
Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM unit ANL.
Source : HKSG / Photo : Baltic Shipping.
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