SFL Corporation Ltd. (NYSE: SFL) (“SFL” or the “Company”) announced today that it has agreed to charter out six 14,000 TEU container vessels to Hapag-Lloyd AG for a fixed period of five years, following the expiry of the vessels’ existing charters to another container line in 2023-2024. The vessels will then have charter coverage until 2028-2029 at firm rates, reflecting the current strong container market.
The new time charter contracts will add approximately $540 million to SFL’s fixed rate charter backlog, increasing the backlog to $3.8 billion.
Ole B. Hjertaker, CEO of SFL Management AS, said in a comment: «We are excited to build a long term relationship with Hapag-Lloyd, who is the world’s fifth largest container line. This transaction also highlights the value and importance of our strong operational platform and our time charter strategy, enabling us to build strong customer relationships with industry leading counterparties. We have now added more than $1 billion to our charter backlog during the first quarter of 2022 which gives us strong earnings visibility and long term distribution capacity going forward.
Source: Hellenic Shipping News
