SITC International Holdings Exercises Options for Two More 1,800 TEU Container Vessels

SITC Shipowning, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese maritime transportation player SITC International Holdings, has exercised options for the construction of two more 1,800 TEU container vessels at compatriot Huanghai Shipbuilding.

As disclosed, the company has set aside HK$449.60 million (around $57.96 million) for the units. The ships will bring the total number of vessels from the series that SITC is expected to welcome from Huanghai Shipbuilding to ten. The delivery date for the pair has reportedly been marked as March and May 2028, respectively.

Seeking to expand its boxship fleet, SITC has entered into a number of strategic contracts (as well as option exercises) with Huanghai Shipbuilding, including one 10-vessel strong booking from 2022, which reportedly included “highly-efficient” ships fitted with solutions focused on environmental sustainability, including exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers).

The latest order belongs to a series of 1,800 TEU units that the company booked back in June 2024. As informed, SITC had initially tapped the yard for a quartet of boxships, with the possibility for another six.

In October last year, the Hong Kong-headquartered shipping player exercised the first tranche of options for two more containerships, followed by another pair in January 2025, bringing the total number at the time to eight.

According to SITC, by the end of December last year, the company operated 114 unit, including one hundred owned ones. It is understood that these include the thirteen 2,600 TEU vessels that the company booked at compatriot Yangzijiang Shipbuilding in 2020, and then took delivery of through 2022 and 2023.

In May 2021, SITC commissioned a firm based in South Korea, Dae Sun Shipbuilding, for the construction of ten 1,023 TEU feeder container vessels. As of February 2025, nine of these have allegedly been delivered.

Despite mounting pressure from across the Pacific Ocean, with the second-time-in Trump administration calling for stricter sanctions against China in a bid to curb its attempts to dominate the maritime industry, the East Asian nation has held a stable position in both the shipping and shipbuilding sectors.

China Leads in Shipowning and Shipbuilding

In January this year, China overtook Japan as the world’s ‘top shipowning nation’, as market sources indicate. What is more, per Greek shipbroker Intermodal’s March 2025 data, China also cemented its position as the “leading” player in the shipbuilding sector, as it has bagged as much as 62% of the present orderbook, which translates to 3,454 out of a total of 5,735 vessels.

In the next few years, maritime transportation majors from around the world are anticipated to start getting ready to take delivery of newbuildings constructed at a yard based in China.

These include Denmark’s A.P. Moller – Maersk, which is projected to welcome ten liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled container vessels from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding in 2027 and 2029, Switzerland’s Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which booked twelve LNG dual-fuel boxships at Zhoushan Changhong International Shipbuilding in August last year, as well as France’s CMA CGM, which splashed nearly $2.6 billion for twelve dual-fuel LNG container vessels in March 2025. CMA CGM’s units are due for a handover in 2028 and 2029.