ATHENS, Greece, May 19, 2011 – Box Ships Inc., (NYSE: TEU), or the Company, a global shipping company specializing in the transportation of containers, announced today that it has taken delivery of the MSC Siena, a 4,546 TEU container vessel built in 2006, from an unaffiliated third party and the CMA CGM Kingfish, a 5,095 TEU container vessel built in 2007 from Paragon Shipping.
The MSC Siena has a fixed rate period time charter term expiring in January 2014 with Maersk at a gross daily charter rate of $28,000, (with charterer option for four successive one year periods at the same gross hire rate). The CMA CGM Kingfish has a fixed rate period time charter term expiring in April 2014 (with the charterer option of plus/minus 45 days) with CMA CGM at a gross daily charter rate of $23,000.
The MSC Siena and the CMA CGM Kingfish are the fourth and fifth vessels of the six vessels comprising the Company’s initial fleet, as identified prior to its Initial Public Offering. The sixth remaining vessel is expected to be delivered by May 31st, 2011 expanding the Company’s fleet to a total of six containerships with a TEU weighted-average age of 2.5 years, a total capacity of 28,177 TEUs and a weighted-average remaining charter duration of 35.3 months.
Commenting on the recent events, Michael Bodouroglou, Chairman, President and CEO of the Company stated “We are pleased that we were able to work to take delivery of five of the six vessels in our initial fleet well in advance of our original timetable, which will have a positive effect on our cash flow for the second quarter of 2011. Our policy is to pay a quarterly dividend to our shareholders supported by our investment in young containership vessels with fixed employment that we expect will generate consistent cash flows and high utilization rates.”
Source: Box Ship Inc.