Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has entered into shipbuilding contracts with two yards belonging to parent, COSCO, for the construction of ten 16,000 TEU containerships.

Five of the vessels will be built at Nantong Cosco KHI Ship Engineering (NACKS) and the other five at Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering (DACKS). The total price of the ten ships is around $1.57bn and delivery is scheduled between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025. The two yards are controlled by COSCO and Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

The newbuilds will be equipped with energy saving and emission reduction technologies, which will generate cost advantages as well as help in environmental protection, OOCL parent company, Orient Overseas International, said. Each ship will be financed by no more than 60% bank financing, whilst the balance of the contract price should be funded from internal resources.

The latest deal takes OOCL’s newbuilding orderbook to 22 vessels.