Cosco Shipping Holdings, the main container arm of state giant China Cosco Shipping, has placed a $1.5bn newbuilding order for 10 large boxships at an affiliated yard.

The Shanghai and Hong Kong-listed company said on Thursday that it had agreed to pay Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry (Yangzhou) $876m for six 14,092-teu vessels and $620m for a quartet of 16,180-teu ships.