The contracts include options for two additional ships of the same capacity as well as four newbuilds with a capacity of 15

Greece-based containership owner Costamare (CMRE) has signed two shipbuilding contracts with an unnamed Asian shipyard for two containerships, each of 13,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity.

These contracts include options for two additional ships of the same capacity as well as four newbuilds with a capacity of 15,000TEU each.

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The vessels are slated for delivery between Q3 2023 and Q1 2024.

Once delivered, all eight ships will enter into long term charters with a ‘leading’ liner company.

The procurement of these vessels is anticipated to be financed with both debt and cash on hand.

Additionally, the company will acquire seven secondhand dry bulk carriers.

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Of these seven ships, Costamare has already received the 2015-built 63,473dwt Soho Trader.

The other six dry bulk vessels are the 63,800dwt Soho Merchant, 63,227dwt Star Damon, 81,569dwt George P, 81,601dwt Egyptian Mike, 58,018dwt Belnor and 57,970dwt Belstar.

These are scheduled to be delivered between this December and next January, with funding expected through debt and cash reserves.

CMRE CFO Gregory Zikos said: “During the year we chartered, in total, 47 container vessels, adding contracted revenues of $1.8bn. Including the two recently concluded newbuilding contracts and the options exercised, total contracted revenues amount to $4.8bn, and the remaining weighted average time charter duration for the fleet is 6.3 years.

“At the same time, we are expanding our dry bulk fleet, bringing the total number of owned dry bulk vessels to 44, executing on our decision to invest in a liquid sector where supply is limited by a low order book and demand is being driven by increased infrastructure spending and commodity consumption.”

In 2013, CMRE formed a joint venture with York Capital Management Global Advisors to invest up to $500m in the acquisition of container ships.