COSCO Shipping Holdings has signed up for another 18 containerships worth RMB20.27bn ($2.99bn), taking its newbuilding commitments in the segment this year to 48 vessels and around $8bn.
The latest package is split between 12 LNG dual-fuel megamaxes at CSSC’s Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and six wide-beam feeder ships at fellow CSSC yard Huangpu Wenchong.
The larger ships are described by COSCO as 22,000 teu units, while Waigaoqiao puts their nominal capacity at 21,700 teu. They are priced at $224m each, giving the 12-ship programme a value of $2.688bn.
The six 3,200 teu ships will cost RMB339.8m ($50m) apiece, or RMB2.039bn ($300m) in total. They are based on a wide-beam design aimed at regional and feeder trades. Together, the two contracts add 283,200 teu of nominal capacity.
The orders cap a remarkable year of contracting for China’s largest liner group.
Splash reported in January that COSCO had kicked off 2026 with 12 LNG dual-fuel 18,000 teu ships at Jiangnan Shipyard and six 3,000 teu conventional-fuel units at COSCO Zhoushan in a package worth about $2.7bn.
The group followed in April through Orient Overseas International with another 12 LNG dual-fuel ships of 13,600 teu worth $2.22bn.
The three rounds take COSCO Shipping Holdings’ 2026 order tally to 48 containerships representing around 676,800 teu and RMB54.27bn ($8bn) of investment. Of those, 36 ships with almost 640,000 teu of capacity are LNG dual-fuel vessels.
The latest spending also pushes COSCO considerably further into LNG. Splash noted at the start of the year that the Jiangnan series marked the group’s first move into LNG-fuelled containership newbuildings after previously concentrating on methanol and conventional propulsion.
