Greek ship owner Danaos Corporation has confirmed an order of four 7,200 TEU container ships at the South Korean shipyard, Daehan Shipbuilding.
The new vessels are expected to be delivered to Danaos in the first half of 2024, while this will be the first post-panamax ship order of Daehan Shipbuilding, which had specialised in building Aframax oil tankers.
“These vessels are at the forefront of new technology, come with the latest specifications on emissions requirements and are methanol ready. With this order, Danaos continues to solidify its position as one of the major players in the containership market worldwide,” commented CEO of Danaos, Dr. John Coustas.
This order follows a similar one in March, when Danaos announced order of two 7,100 TEU vessels at Dalian Shipbuilding in China.
All the new boxships will be methanol fuel ready, will come with open loop scrubbers and will be built in accordance with the latest requirements of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in relation to Tier III emission standards and Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) Phase III, according to Danaos.
“The current world developments are pointing out to significantly elevated fuel prices in the future and bearing in mind the uncertainty of green fuel availability we are following a strategy of investing into the most fuel-efficient vessels together with scrubbers that will minimize the fuel cost while maintaining the option to modify the vessels into green methanol use when the fuel will be available,” added Coustas.
He pointed out that “this strategy removes the risk of technical obsolescence while it delivers short and medium term benefits on the fuel cost front.”
