The Danish shipping company Maersk has increased its order book: eight large container ships are to be added to the fleet by 2030.
As announced by A.P. Møller-Maersk, the new series will be built at New Times Shipbuilding in China. The ships each have a capacity of 18,600 TEU, bringing the total volume of the series to almost 150,000 TEU and allowing the shipping company’s order book to grow significantly in one fell swoop. Delivery of the ships is planned for 2029 and 2030.
“We are delighted to have signed a contract for eight large vessels,” said Anda Cristescu, Head of Chartering & Newbuilding at Maersk. “The order is part of our ongoing fleet renewal and will help to ensure the competitiveness of our fleet.”
The design of the new container ships is more compact than before: with a length of 366 m and a width of 58.6 m, they are below the maximum permitted length for container ships (400 m). The largest units in the Maersk fleet belong to the so-called “Triple-E class”, which was built between 2012 and 2019: the 31 ships are 399 m long and have a capacity of almost 20,600 TEU since the second generation. They primarily sail between Europe and Asia.
“The flexible deployment options were a decisive factor in our decision. Although these ships are large, they offer greater flexibility than the largest ships currently being built in our industry,” said Cristescu, explaining the move away from the established, larger design. “This opens up a wide range of possible applications in our existing and future network.”
The ships will be equipped with dual-fuel engines that can run on both conventional heavy fuel oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG), Maersk announced. The shipping company now has a total of 33 ships on order, four of which are to be delivered in the course of 2026.
Maersk’s container fleet currently comprises a total of 730 ships, of which 346 are owned by the shipping company and the remaining 384 are chartered. With a total capacity of 4.633 million TEU, Maersk is in second place in the global ranking of liner shipping companies, directly behind the Mediterranean Shipping Group (MSC) and ahead of the French shipping company CMA CGM. Together with Hapag-Lloyd, the company operates the “Gemini” alliance, whose Europe-Asia services are to sail through the Red Sea again in future.
