After lengthy negotiations, the shipping company Maersk has awarded the contract for twelve new container ships to a shipyard in China.
The Danish shipping company Maersk has placed an order for twelve new container ships with the Chinese shipyard New Times Shipbuilding. The newbuildings are to be equipped with dual-fuel engines and run on LNG. Their capacity is reportedly 21,000 TEU, but there is currently no reliable information on this. The total value of the order amounts to $2.3 billion – so each ship will cost around $192 million.
Maersk previously announced its intention to conclude the contract by the end of the year. It had already become known in January that the shipping company had submitted enquiries to several shipyards for a series of twelve newbuildings. After several months of negotiations, New Times Shipbuilding was chosen. The shipbuilding company’s offer was reportedly around $20 million less per ship than that of a competitor from South Korea.
After Maersk initially focused heavily on methanol as an alternative fuel, the container giant is currently pursuing an LNG strategy. At the end of last year, the shipping company placed an order for 20 newbuildings with a total capacity of 300,000 TEU, all of which will run on LNG. They will be built in China and South Korea, with planned delivery starting in 2028.
Like Gemini partner Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk has long been reluctant to place new orders, but was the world’s largest charterer. Measured against its fleet and in comparison to its direct competitors, the shipping company’s order book is relatively small. According to Alphaliner, it comprises 70 ships with a capacity of 886,000 TEU, which corresponds to just under 20% of the fleet in service.
CMA CGM – in third place in the ranking – has already overtaken second-placed Maersk in terms of order books: 1.7 million TEU (42% of the fleet) are delivered to the French company. The Chinese state shipping company Cosco also has 1.1 million TEU on order. Meanwhile, industry leader MSC is extending its already comfortable lead over the competition even further: Almost 2.2 million TEU are in the order book, while the fleet underway recently exceeded the 7 million TEU capacity mark.
