Maersk postponed orders for 15 methanol twin fuel tanks България

Danish shipping giant Maersk has decided to postpone the construction of up to 15 3,500TEU methanol-powered bi-fuel regional container ships, as China's Taiwan shipping company Eva Shipping orders container ships.

Maersk has decided to postpone orders for up to 15 3500TEU methanol dual-fuel powered feeder container ships to be built by CSSC Huangpu Wenchong, a subsidiary of China Shipbuilding Group. The cause is not known.

Maersk plans to review the shipbuilding plan in the second half of this year, the ship broker said. Industry insiders believe that as the world's second largest liner giant Maersk announced the suspension of the new shipbuilding plan has been selected as the future focus of the ship type is unusual.

In October last year, Maersk first reported that it would order up to 15 methanol dual-fuel powered regional container ships and said that it had issued bids to a number of Chinese shipyards such as Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, CSSC Huangpu Wenchong and Zhoushan Changhong International. At the end of last year, it was reported that CSSC Huangpu Wenchong successfully won the large order of Maersk's dual-fuel container ship with a more competitive price advantage. In December last year, the two sides signed an order for 15 3,500TEU methanol dual-fuel powered feeder container ships with a total value of $1.02 billion.

South Korean media "Businesskorea" news considering that the cancellation of the contract will lead to high liquidated damages Maersk is unlikely to cancel the order. "Maersk will restart the shipbuilding plan when the project reaches a certain maturity," an industry source said.

It is understood that Maersk first placed an order for methanol dual-fuel power vessels to a Chinese shipyard in June 2023, when the company signed a contract for the construction of 6 9000TEU methanol dual-fuel power container ships with Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Industry, which is also the first methanol dual-fuel power container ship order contracted by this private shipping company. Up to now, Maersk has placed orders for 25 new methanol-fueled vessels, which will be delivered to shipyards in China and South Korea between 2024 and 2027.

Although Maersk's orders are in a "pending" state, industry sources said that the same top ten liner giant Evergreen Shipping has just ordered six 2400TEU methanol dual-fuel power feeder container ships to CSSC Huangpu Wenchung with a single ship cost of about 53 million US dollars. The total value of the orders is about 318 million US dollars.

The order marks Eva Shipping's new shipbuilding investment since 2021 to more than $10 billion and is another new shipbuilding contract for the global liner giants this year after Japan Ocean Network Shipping (ONE) announced orders for a total of 12 13,000TEU methanol dual-fuel powered container ships from China Shipbuilding Group Jiangnan Shipbuilding and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.

Orders for container ships have fallen this year due to record deliveries. The Baltic International Chamber of Shipping (BIMCO) noted that container ship deliveries in the first four months of this year have exceeded 1 million TEU, an increase of nearly 80% compared to the previous record. Due to record deliveries of new ships, the number of orders on hand has decreased but still stands at 6.1 million TEU, equivalent to 21% of the current fleet capacity. BIMCO expects container ship deliveries to exceed 3 million TEU this year, 30% higher than last year. Deliveries by 2025 will be just under 2 million TEU, second only to 2023 and 2024.