Cosco Shipping announced that it has exercised options for two 28,000dwt heavy lift vessels at Shanghai Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding. Deliveries of the two vessels are set for April and August of 2018.

The order is an addition to the four 28,000dwt heavy lift vessels Cosco Shipping ordered at Hudong Zhonghua and Shanghai Shipyard in January at a price of RMB290m (US$46.3m) each.

Cosco Shipping raised RMB2.5bn (US$399m) funding in January for the expansion of its fleet.

A senior official from Cosco Shipping said that Cosco Shipping has almost completed the company's twelfth five year (2011-2015) newbuild plan and newbuild projects in the future will be based on new shipping projects with low operating risk.

"The drop in oil prices will no doubt slow down the investment in the offshore market, which will give a gloomy outlook for the submersible vessel market, despite the drop in fuel cost," said the official.

"We are making more efforts to improve our standards in safety management and technical management, which are seen as top priorities in the high-end market," the official added.