One of the container shipping lines hit hardest by the industry’s sharp downturn has taken a step closer to restructuring itself by agreeing postponements of $2bn of new ship orders. Zim Integrated Shipping announced on Thursday that it had agreed in principle to postpone delivery of four ships of 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) capacity from next year until 2014 or 2015. It had also recently reached an “understanding” to delay delivery of nine 12,600 TEU ships until 2014 or 2015.

Israel Corporation, Zim’s controlling shareholder, announced the agreements to shareholders ahead of a meeting to agree a restructuring of the company, which is seeking a $350m cash injection from the Israel Corporation. In August, the corporation had to lend Zim $60m in emergency funding to keep it afloat.