(Yicai) April 30 -- COSCO Shipping Holdings, a Chinese container shipping giant, said it will invest USD2.2 billion on a dozen 13,600 twenty-foot equivalent unit liquefied natural gas dual-fuel container vessels, its third big order this year, with the firm aiming to secure stable and reliable long-term capacity for the development of emerging and regional markets

CSSC Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group will build the 12 ships for COSCO Shipping's subsidiary Orient Overseas International, the Shanghai-based firm announced yesterday. Deliveries are scheduled between the third quarter of 2028 and the first quarter of 2030.

The combined capacity of COSCO Shipping's self-owned and ordered vessels topped about 4.84 million TEU after the latest deal.

Upon commissioning of the new ships, COSCO Shipping will further strengthen its competitive edge on traditional Europe-US trunk routes and enhance the capacity of its feeder network around core hub ports, including the Port of Piraeus in Greece, the Port of Chancay in Peru, and Hainan Yangpu Port, according to the company.

The deal will also help rejuvenate COSCO Shipping's container fleet structure, raise the average capacity per vessel, and cut transportation costs, the firm said, adding that the adoption of green alternative fuels will reduce its spending on carbon emission allowance purchases and meet clients' demand for zero-carbon supply chains.

In January, COSCO Shipping spent CNY16.8 billion (USD2.3 billion) on 12 18,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel container ships and CNY2 billion (USD272 million) on six 3,000 TEU container ships. The larger vessels will be mainly deployed on east-west trunk routes, while the smaller ones will serve as feeder ships for international lanes.

In a separate announcement yesterday, COSCO Shipping said its net profit halved to CNY5.9 billion in the first quarter from a year earlier due to a decline in freight rates, while it still rose 55 percent from the previous quarter. Its operating revenue fell 11 percent to CNY51.8 billion year over year.

COSCO Shipping operated a fleet of 598 container ships with a combined capacity of 3.62 million TEU as of March 31. Its first-quarter container throughput reached 6.9 million TEU, up 6.7 percent from a year ago.

Shares of COSCO Shipping [SHA: 601919] closed 1.7 percent lower at CNY14.12 (USD2.07) each in Shanghai today. Orient Overseas' stock [HKG: 0316] fell 0.9 percent to HKD136.60 (USD17.43) as of 3.10 p.m. in Hong Kong.

Editor: Martin Kadiev