by Lloyd's List
2 December 2024 (Lloyd's List) - MAERSK has set out its stall for a tranche of newbuilding orders, following an announcement in August about intentions to replace older ships with new dual-fuel tonnage.
The world’s second largest operator of containerships confirmed today that it has signed firm newbuilding contracts for a total of 20 boxships of between 9,000 teu and 17,000 teu. All of the vessels will be capable of utilising LNG fuel.
Commenting on the orders confirmed today, Maersk head of chartering & newbuilding Anda Cristescu said: “We are pleased to have signed agreements for 20 vessels and thereby completed the acquisition of 300,000 teu capacity as announced in August.
“These orders are a part of our ongoing fleet renewal programme and in line with our commitment to decarbonisation, as all the vessels will have dual-fuel engines with the intent to operate them on lower emissions fuel.”
The orders comprise two midsize, 9,000 teu and six ultra-large, 17,000 teu vessels contracted from privately owned Chinese shipyard Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
Maersk is a previous client of the shipyard. In June 2023 the company signed newbuilding contracts for six 9,000 teu, methanol dual-fuel, vessels for delivery in 2026 and 2027.
In addition, Maersk confirmed today that it has signed up for six 15,000 teu ships each at Hanwha Ocean and Chinese shipyard New Times Shipbuilding Co.
Maersk is a regular client of Hanwha Ocean with the South Korean shipyard having delivered 31 ‘Triple-E’ class, 18,000 teu containerships to Maersk between 2013 and 2019.
The Copenhagen-headquartered company said delivery of its latest newbuildings will be between 2028 and 2030.
“Due to their different sizes, the vessels will be able to fill many roles and functions within our future network and give us a lot of deployment flexibility when they are ready to enter our fleet,” Maersk said. “Once phased in, they will replace existing capacity in our fleet.”
The orders are part of Maersk’s fleet renewal programme announced in August for orders for up to 60 containership newbuildings, via both owned and chartered tonnage, with a combined capacity of 800,000 teu.
The remaining, 500,000 teu, capacity is set to be provided by leading tonnage providers. According to shipbroking sources, Hong Kong-headquartered Seaspan and Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping are understood to be providing the majority of the time chartered vessels to Maersk.
Maersk stated in August that these orders will not add to its overall capacity and over time every vessel coming in will replace an older ship, which will then be recycled.
In addition to its latest orders, Maersk has a backlog of 11 ‘Equinox’ class newbuildings of between 16,592 teu and 17,200 teu.
A total of 18 of these, methanol dual-fuel ships, were ordered in 2021 and 2022 with seven of them having already entered service.
