SIMIC

The order comes with options for two more ships. No price has been revealed for the panamax newbuilds. Data from Alphaliner suggests the ships are in fact 14,700 TEU in terms of capacity, reports Singapore's Splash 247.

BAL is one of a host of new Chinese lines to have grown very rapidly during the pandemic. At the onset of Covid, the carrier was outside the top 100 liner list, but today ranks 46th in Alphaliner's rankings.

Based in Qingdao in Shandong province, BAL was incorporated in August 2012 and is a subsidiary of Shandong Lcang International Logistics, which is owned by Chinese businessman Xu Xin. It started out as a tonnage provider before becoming an intra-Asia operator. Last year it launched services on the transpacific as well as on the Asia-Europe tradelane.