COSCO scraps eight vessels from its aged fleet

China COSCO Holdings Company Limited has disassembled eight vessels from its aged fleet, the group said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The scrapped vessels include eight container
ships (Hutuo He, Xinhui He, Zhaoqing He, Yangjiang He and Yongding He) and three bulk carriers (Peng Jie, Peng Nian and Peng Cai) that were disposed of during January. The vessels, with the aggregate capacity of 257,657 deadweight tons, were disposed of as scrapped vessels to different purchasers, all of which are independent third parties of the company, at a total consideration of approximately RMB82.2 million, the filing said. ”The Board considers that the decommissioning of the vessels is conducive to enhancing the overall operational competitiveness of the shipping fleet of the company and is in the interest of the company and the shareholders as a whole,” COSCO said. According to COSCO’s unaudited financial results for the month ended 31 January 2015, realized losses incurred from the disassembly of the vessels amounted to approximately RMB182.24 million.