New forces will be needed at one of the world's largest owners of container tonnage, Seaspan, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. CEO and co-founder Gerry Wang will be stepping down but remains in the post until his replacement is found, by the end of the year at the latest.

Going forward, Wang will focus on family investments and his charity work,informs Seaspan in connection with the release of its second quarterly report. Here, Seaspan booked USD 205 million revenue and earnings of USD 35.5 million, with both figures representing setbacks compared with the same period last year, where the figures came to USD 224 million and USD 44 million, respectively.

This financial situation allows Wang to comfortably step down from Seaspan after 20 years, thought he will continue to serve on the board of directors until the end of the year.

"I am choosing this timing because the company's financial and operational position is strong and industry fundamentals have improved," says Wang in the press release.

In the second quarter, Seaspan its reduced daily operating costs per owned vessel by 13.8 percent compared with the second quarter 2016, while 98.2 percent of all the company's vessels were in the water. The fleet also grew a bit in the quarter, with the delivery of container vessel YM Wind of 14,000 teu, which has been chartered out for the next ten years.

"We took important steps to further strengthen our financial position during the quarter, including entering into a sale-leaseback transaction to fund the YM Wind delivery and renewing our unsecured revolving loan facility. Both of these transactions demonstrate the company's strong access to capital," says Wang, commenting on the results.

Seaspan has a total 89 vessels in the water and controls a fleet of 114 container vessels altogether.

English Edit: Lena Rutkowski

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