COSCO Shipping Development, the financing arm of the Chinese state-controlled shipping giant, announced that its subsidiary Oriental Fleet has purchased a 271,000 cubic meter QC-Max newbuild vessel from a unit of MOL.
Delivery is scheduled for July 2029, and upon delivery, the vessel will be chartered back to MOL under a 20-year bareboat charter agreement. During the lease period, MOL will pay over $440 million in charter hire, and at the end of the term, the vessel’s ownership will be transferred back for $1.
COSCO Shipping Development stated that the agreement aligns with its core vessel leasing strategy and enhances the scale and quality of its assets.
This move builds on the broader cooperation between COSCO and MOL with QatarEnergy. At the end of last year, the two companies joined forces for the construction of six $2 billion ultra-large gas carrier newbuilds ordered at Hudong-Zhonghua, following a 2022 contract for seven 174,000 cbm vessels.
The QC-Max series, ordered in September 2023, are the largest LNG carriers ever contracted and are scheduled for delivery from 2028 to 2031.
