Orient Overseas is rather like DHL it delivers door-to-door and enables customers to track packages in its care. For OOIL, however, the packages are dirty great containers - or 20ft equivalent units TEUs as they're known in the trade - rather than cardboard boxes and envelopes and these are moved a few thousand at a time on 300m long ships.
Boats this big don't come cheap and OOIL has 37 at its disposal, 18 of which are owned and the remainder leased, typically on six- to eight-year contracts. The company plans to add a further five newly built vessels this year two of these are being bought and the remainder leased....
