Maersk has confirmed an order of six mid-sized container vessels with dual-fuel engines able to operate on green methanol at Singapore-based Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group, which will build the six 9,000 TEU ships.
The delivery of the methanol-powered vessels is scheduled to start in 2026 with the last ship expected to be delivered in March 2027. All of them have dual-fuel engines making them able to operate on both fuel oil and methanol.
“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,” stated Rabab Boulos, chief infrastructure officer at Maersk.
In 2021, the Danish ocean carrier ordered the world’s first methanol-enabled container vessel, and two years later, by ordering additional six boxships, Maersk now has 25 methanol-enabled vessels on order.
“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,” noted Rabab Boulos.
Later this summer, the first methanol-enabled vessel, a 2,100 TEU feeder vessel, will be delivered to the Copenhagen-based carrier.
The new vessels are expected to replace 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,” said the company in a statement.
