The French shipping company CMA CGM has ordered further newbuildings. Hyundai is to deliver twelve container ships, each with a capacity of 18,000 TEU.
CMA CGM, the No. 3 in global container shipping, already has a current order book of 72 ships with a total of 1.1 million TEU, which corresponds to around 29% of its existing fleet. Now another 216,000 TEU are apparently being added.
According to media reports, the shipyard itself has confirmed the order without explicitly naming the client. The ships are to be equipped with dual-fuel engines that can use gas (LNG) as fuel, like all other newbuilds from the French company.
The order is valued at US$2.58bn. All ships are to be delivered by the end of 2028 and built at the Hyundai shipyard in Ulsan.
CMA CGM is moving closer to Maersk
CMA CGM is thus moving closer to Maersk, the No. 2. The Danes, soon to be Hapag-Lloyd’s partner in the Gemini Cooperation, had also ordered newbuildings in this size segment in step with the German shipping company before the turn of the year. However, the order book is significantly smaller with 51 ships and 758,500 TEU.
In terms of fleet capacity, Maersk (4.46 million TEU) currently still has a lead of around 600,000 TEU over CMA CGM (3.86 million TEU), but this is shrinking further due to the ships that have now been added.
Last year, there were record figures for both orders and deliveries of container ships. Orders for a total of around 4.4 million TEU were placed, which was around 100,000 TEU more than in 2021.
