Seaspan-Benefactor

On July 1st a boxship paid the highest ever Panama Canal transit fee in the waterway’s 102-year history. The Hong Kong-flagged MOL Benefactor shelled out $829,468 for the 77 km interoceanic crossing, beating the record $575,545 Cosco Shipping Panama paid as the first vessel to transit the expanded canal last Sunday. The MOL Benefactor is a Seaspan controlled 10,000 teu ship which is 337 m long and 48 m wide. Given that the newly widened canal can accept boxships of up to 12,000 teu, a $1m transit fee is on the cards soon, all happening to repay the $5.25bn Panamanian authorities have paid to get the waterway widened over the past decade.

Seaspan Corporation announced on March 24 that it accepted delivery of a 10000 TEU containership, the MOL Benefactor. The new containership, which was constructed at Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., is Seaspan’s ninth 10,000 TEU SAVER design containership and first delivery in 2016. This is the 18th 10,000 TEU vessel using Seaspan’s fuel-efficient SAVER design constructed at Yangzijiang. The MOL Benefactor will commence an eight-year, fixed-rate time charter with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (MOL). The ship is the last of a total of five 10000 TEU SAVER design vessels to be chartered by Seaspan to MOL.