Maersk Line has made an order of six mid-sized container vessels – all having dual-fuel engines able to operate on green methanol – in a bid to 'greenify' its fleet.
It has also been announced that Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group will build the six 9,000 TEU vessels which will be delivered in 2026 and 2027.
In 2021, Maersk ordered the world’s first methanol-enabled container vessel following a commitment to the principle of only ordering newbuilt vessels that can sail on green fuels.
Just two years later, the global order-book stands at more than 100 methanol-enabled vessels.
By ordering additional six vessels, Maersk now has 25 methanol-enabled vessels on order, as well as retrofitting an existing ship to a dual-fuel methanol-powered vessel recently.
Rabab Boulos, Chief Infrastructure Officer at Maersk, said: "With this order, we take another step in the green transformation of our fleet and towards our target of becoming net-zero in 2040.
"As with all our other vessel orders for the last two years, these ships will be able to run on green methanol.
"For these six container vessels, we have chosen a design and vessel size which make them very flexible from a deployment point of view.
"This will allow these vessels to fill many functions in both our current and our future network, thereby offering the flexibility our customers demand. Once phased in, they will replace existing capacity in our fleet."
They have a capacity of 9,000 containers (Twenty Foot Equivalent - TEU)
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Groupwill build the six vessels in China
The ships will be delivered from 2026 and with last delivery in March 2027
All of them have dual-fuel engines making them able to operate on both fuel oil and methanol
Upon delivery, the vessels will replace the existing capacity in the Maersk fleet
Replacing vessels in a similar size segment, the new vessels will reduce Maersk’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 450,000 tons CO2e per year on a fuel lifecycle basis when operating on green methanol.