Contships hails ‘historically tight’ feeder market
- Owner sells nine and acquires five in fleet renewal this year
- Operators are chartering ships for longer periods at ‘elevated’ rates
- Greek owner’s sustainability-linked Nordic bond listed on Oslo exchange in July
Nikolas Pateras-led containership owner sees ‘positive’ market outlook despite geopolitical disruption and risks
CONTSHIPS Logistics, the largest owner of feeder containerships in the 900 teu-2,000 teu segment, has posted profits for the second financial quarter, as charter rates for such vessels continue to stand firm.
Summarising the market, the Nikolas Pateras-led owner of about 40 feeders said that the chartering scene remained strong into the present quarter of the year, driven by the ongoing disruption to Red Sea traffic and demand for alternative routing.
“While spot container freight rates for mainliner vessels have softened slightly from their early Q2 peaks, the container feeder market remains historically tight,” Contships said in a commentary on its accounts.
Charter rates for sub-2,000 teu ships were “near multi-year highs due to capacity constraints,” the company added.
“Fixing periods have lengthened, and operators continue to renew at elevated levels.”
The company, which raised $100m earlier this year from a first Nordic sustainability-linked bond that was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange last month, saw the outlook for feeders as positive, despite geopolitical challenges, a possibility of the Red Sea situation normalising and a huge containership orderbook.
“The containership market has exhibited a notable short-term resilience with time charter rates and vessel values standing at the highest levels on record outside of the Covid period,” it remarked.
So far this year the Greece-based owner has agreed the sale of nine vessels, of which eight have already been delivered to buyers, for an aggregate price of about $78.8m.
Meanwhile, it has acquired five new vessels including the two largest vessels now on the fleet, the 1,992 teu Contship Ana II (IMO: 9470973) and Contship Pep II (IMO: 9470961).
The pair are on new two-year charters to Mediterranean Shipping Co and Cosco, respectively, at daily rates of $23,500 and $23,600.
Contship said that it averaged a daily time charter rate of $13,490 per vessel during the first half of 2025 and is expecting a higher average of about $15,100 per day in the second half of the year.
Second-quarter revenues increased to $50.8m, up from $46m in the same period last year.
The owner posted a $9.9m profit for the period, compared with $29.2m in the second quarter of 2024.
The amount of cash on Contships’ balance sheet grew to $85.7m at end-June, an increase from $29m at end-2024.
Contships’ main charterers are led by CMA CGM, which has 15 of the company’s vessels in its feedering network, followed by Cosco and MSC with seven and six units, respectively.