Zim to Buy Eight Ships for $1.36B

Israel Corp. subsidiary Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. said it had placed an order to purchase eight mega container ships from the South Korea’s shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. The deal, valued at $1.37b, ($170m each) comes six weeks after Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. announced its plan to upgrade its container vessels fleet. The company had ordered eight TEU 12,600 mega containership for delivery by July 2012. The purchase will substantially increase the Israeli-based carrier's fleet when the vessels arrive in 2012. The order took the global shipping sector by surprise, since Zim had generally bought its containerships from rival South Korean's Hyundai Shipyards. Earlier this year the line purchased two 2,450-TEU containerships with an option to buy additional two. These vessels are scheduled for delivery in 2010-11. [Source: http://www.port2port.com]