RCL Returns to Its Feeder Roots With Four 1,900 TEU Ships in Guangzhou
The quartet sits alongside an orderbook running up to nearly 14,000 teu through 2028.
Thailand's Regional Container Lines has gone back to the size class it was built on, ordering four 1,900 teu ships at CSSC Huangpu Wenchong in Guangzhou.
The vessels use the yard's in-house design, measuring 172 m long and 27.5 m in the beam, with a deadweight of around 24,000 tonnes. They meet IMO Energy Efficiency Design Index Phase III requirements and will be fitted with shore power connections and scrubbers. Price, delivery dates and the split between firm ships and options have not been disclosed, although comparable newbuildings in this size band have recently been quoted at around $32m apiece.
The order is small in capacity terms and deliberate in placement. RCL operates a fleet of 46 ships with a combined capacity of about 191,816 teu, and its network is built on intra-Asia, Asia-India Subcontinent, Asia-Gulf and feeder services, where port pairs are short, call frequency matters more than slot cost, and berth and draught limits cap the useful size of a container ship well below the mainline classes.
It also fills a hole at the bottom of an orderbook that has been growing at the top. RCL has 16 newbuildings scheduled for delivery through 2028, ranging from 4,300 teu up to nearly 14,000 teu, including eight 4,300 teu ships already booked at Huangpu Wenchong and two 14,000 teu units contracted at Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering for delivery by October 2028. The four 1,900 teu feeders add roughly 7,600 teu to that pipeline.
The pairing of shore power and scrubbers on a feeder is worth noting. Scrubbers make the economics of high-sulphur fuel work on a ship that spends much of its life inside emission-sensitive Asian port ranges, while shore power addresses the at-berth portion of the same problem, and on short-sea rotations with frequent calls the berth share of the operating day is high enough for both to matter.
Huangpu Wenchong has become the default address for this class of order. The yard's standardised feeder and mid-size designs have drawn repeat business from regional operators across Asia, and RCL's return to Guangzhou for a fourth tranche of tonnage follows the same pattern of building series at one yard rather than shopping each contract.
