The contract for building two container ships, 1730 TEU capacity, was signed between Far Eastern Shipping Company PLC and shipyard Stocznia Szczecinska Nowa in Szczecin, Poland, on April 2nd, 2004. Besides these two container ships, FESCO has one in option that should be announced to the shipyard until February 15th, 2005.
New buildings are to come into operation at the end of 2007. The third container ship will be put into operation at the beginning of 2008. It is worthwhile to note that these vessels will be the most modern and cost-effective ones in FESCO fleet. They are going to be built within the approved “Program of fleet renewal” and “Strategic plan of FESCO development” up to 2009.
The shipyard was chosen not by chance. FESCO has been actively cooperating with Stocznia Szczecinska Nowa since 1993. Shipbuilders of Szczecin have already built 6 vessels for Far Eastern Shipping Company: container ships “Kapitan Byankin”, “Yuriy Ostrovsky” and “Kapitan Konev” in 1994-1995, “Kapitan Afanasyev”, “Vladivostok” and “Kapitan Maslov” in 1998. Alongside with FESCO, shipping companies of German, Denmark and Norway order and build a new fleet at the shipyard in Szczecin.
Building and operation of new container ships of such class will allow FESCO, first, to keep competitive power at the market of international carriages, second, to expand the geography of export-import carriages at the internal Russian market as well as enhance the quality of service in cabotage carriages.