Greek shipping company Minerva Dry has placed another order for containership newbuildings at China's Hengli Heavy Industries, further expanding an already substantial boxship orderbook and underscoring the growing role of non-operating owners in the containership newbuilding market.

The company, led by Andreas Martinos, has contracted a batch of Hengli's in-house-designed 3,100 TEU vessels, according to an August 2 update from the Chinese shipbuilding group detailing contracts secured during July. Hengli did not disclose the number of ships involved, the contract price, or the delivery schedule. The vessel design has been developed specifically for regional trade services and feeder fleet renewal. Hengli Heavy Industries operates the former STX Dalian shipyard facilities, which were acquired and reactivated by Hengli Group as part of China's broader push to expand domestic shipbuilding capacity.

This latest agreement follows a deal struck weeks earlier, in which Minerva ordered four conventionally fuelled 6,000 TEU ships at the same Dalian-based yard. That quartet is slated for delivery in 2028 and is estimated to be valued at approximately $320m. The mid-size containership segment spanning roughly 3,000 to 6,000 TEU has attracted sustained ordering interest from owners catering to regional trades and intra-Asia routes, where fleet renewal demand and charter market activity have remained firm.

Prior to this newest order, Minerva had 13 containerships under construction across Chinese shipyards. That construction programme comprised the four 6,000 TEU Hengli vessels, five 3,100 TEU ships at Penglai Jinglu, and four 1,800 TEU feeder vessels split between Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and Huanghai Shipbuilding. The concentration of orders at Chinese yards reflects the country's dominant position in global shipbuilding, with Chinese builders consistently capturing the majority of newbuilding contracts across multiple vessel segments.

Minerva currently operates close to 10 containerships ranging in size from approximately 1,760 TEU to 2,400 TEU. The company has established its position in the container shipping sector through a combination of newbuilding orders and secondhand vessel acquisitions, with its total investment in container tonnage standing at roughly $1bn. Greek shipowners, traditionally associated with tanker and bulk carrier fleets, have notably expanded their presence in the containership asset class in recent years, deploying capital into both newbuildings and secondhand tonnage chartered out to liner operators.