MEDITERRANEAN Shipping Co (MSC) is planning to charter ten 10,000-TEU ships in the coming years as part of a deal that China's Import Export Bank struck to provide US$690 million to UK investment firm, BCAP, to finance the vessel purchase. 

Upon delivery of the ships, BCAP is to charter them to MSC.

The shipping line, the world's second largest by current fleet size, commands the biggest order book among the top 20 global carriers, with 701,000 TEU, including 20 containerships of 19,200 TEU being built at three Korean shipyards.

The first two of these were delivered in the first quarter, with the remainder due to join the fleet through early 2017, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce.