You can buy a brand-new Ferrari starting at $250,000. To rent a 12-year-old container ship for a mere three months, it could cost you a lot more than that: as much as 68 new Ferraris. Euroseas confirmed this week that it chartered its 2009-built, 4,250-twenty-foot equivalent unit container ship Synergy Oakland for 60-85 days at a gross rate of $195,000-$202,000 per day starting in the second half of October.

"This is the highest time-charter rate ever achieved by any vessel in our fleet and one of the highest rates ever achieved in our industry," said Euroseas CEO Aristides Pittas.

The Synergy Oakland rate "is absolutely incredible," said Charles Mercier, senior container market analyst at Alphaliner, in an interview with American Shipper on Friday.

"We have never seen a classic Panamax getting so much, although it is only a short-term commitment," he said. (A classic Panamax is a container ship with capacity of 4,000-5,000 TEUs.)

High-water mark for short-term rates

The Synergy Oakland rate is at the all-time high in the short-term market, matching the rate on a six-month charter of a larger 8,500-TEU ship in July. A report in late July of a $300,000-per-day charter turned out to be a special transaction with complex terms and is not comparable.