MSC to charter 8,540-TEU Bunga Seroja Lima from MISC

THE Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is chartering the 8,540-TEU Bunga Seroja Lima for deployment on its Far East-west coast of South America Andes service, which would make her the largest containership operating in that part of South America.

The Bunga Seroja Lima is the third of four same-sized vessels on long-term charters from Japanese owners who ordered the ships in March 2008 that were built by Mitsubishi.



The vessels were first intended for use by Malaysia's MISC Berhad, which had planned to deploy the vessels on the Asia-Europe trade route within the framework of the Grand Alliance partnership, reports Alphaliner. However, the carrier's decision to abandon the trade, as well as the Grand Alliance, in January 2010 to focus on the intra-Asia and Australia-New Zealand trades meant that the Malaysian shipping line had no use for such large vessels.



As a result, the ships were put up for charter with two of them being chartered by APL last year. The Bunga Seroja Lima follows the Bunga Seroja Empat that was delivered in September 2010 and is now operated as the APL Ningbo.