SEASPAN Corp, Canada's top marine transporter, will lease eight container vessels to a unit of China Cosco Holdings Co for US$1.9 billion as demand for cargo haulers surges in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

Cosco Container Lines Co, Asia's biggest container-shipping line, will pay a daily fee of US$55,000 a vessel during the 12-year contract, Vancouver-based Seaspan said yesterday.

Cosco Container, A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, the world's largest shipping line, and their rivals are ordering more ships as manufacturers import raw materials into China and move finished goods to the United States and Europe, said Bloomberg News.

Shipping lines worldwide spent US$95.2 billion in new vessels in the first seven months of this year, 33 percent more than a year earlier, according to London-based Clarkson Plc, the world's biggest ship broker.

"China has become a major manufacturing country for the world," said Cho In Karp, a fund manager at Hansset Global Advisor in Seoul. "The economy is growing more than 10 percent, which means there will be need for more vessels to transport goods made there."

The Seaspan vessels are designed to carry 13,100 standard containers measuring 20 feet in length, among the largest ships of their kind. They are scheduled for delivery in 2011.