Maersk adds six methanol dual fuel container ships to orderbook

With the order, Maersk has in total ordered 25 vessels with dual-fuel engines able to operate on green methanol, and has signed a contract with MAN ES to convert a further 11 vessels to methanol dual-fuel operation from 2024. 

The six 9,000 teu vessels are all to be delivered between 2026 and March 2027. The newbuildings form part of Maersk’s ongoing fleet renewal programme and their capacity will replace an equal amount of capacity reaching end-of-life and leaving the Maersk managed fleet. The 6 newbuildings are expected to generate annual CO2 emissions savings of around 0.45 million tonnes on a fuel lifecycle basis when operating on green 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,” says Rabab Boulos, Chief Infrastructure Officer at Maersk. 

“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,” says Rabab Boulos. 

The order follows shortly after Maersk awarded MAN PrimeServ a contract to retrofit the main engines aboard 11 container vessels equipped with MAN B&W 8G95ME-C9.5 prime movers. These will be retrofitted to dual-fuel MAN B&W 8G95ME-LGIM10.5 types capable of operation on fuel-oil/methanol from 2024.