THAILAND's RCL Group has christened its latest 1,108-TEU newbuild the "Mitra Bhum" at the Jiangsu Eastern Shipyard in China.

The new vessel is the first of two ships of the same specifications to be delivered to the company by the mainland China shipyard this year. The sister ship is expected to take to the water in May.

This latest delivery follows an earlier order placed by RCL for two 1,850-TEU containerships from the shipyard in 2003. They were later delivered in 2005 and deployed on Shanghai and India service.

The two newbuilds are scheduled to join the shipping line's fleet later this year, bringing the total number of newbuilds ordered by the company in recent years to eight. This raises the total number of vessels in the RCL fleet to 44 with an aggregate capacity of more than 54,000 TEU.

RCL is listed on the Thailand Stock Exchange, and its business mainly focuses on the intra-Asia trade. Its ships make calls in northeast, southeast and south Asia and the Middle East as well as Australia, serving many multinational corporations as a nominated carrier.

Located in Shanghai, its subsidiary RCL Shipping Co. Ltd has established an operational network with branches across China from Tianjin in the north to Guangzhou in the south.