Armed with EUR 175m ($227m) from a recent bond sale, the Hamburg-based shipowner is shelling out a total of $30m for theboxships which will take its fleet of owned or managed to vessels to 97, itannounced today.
In a brief statement on its website, the company did not name the vessels or their previous owner or say when they will be handed over.
The company, now led by former Neptune Orient Lines man Ron Widdows, could not be reached for comment at the time ofwriting.
Rickmers’ fleet currently counts eight 2,200-teu vessels allof which were built by Taiwan’s CSBC around 1998.
Boxships of this size are currently providing one of the fewbright spots in the market, the company explains.
The number of vessels exiting the market over the past yearhas provided short term upside for charter rates, it added.
