Copenhagen, Denmark – A.P. Moller - Maersk (Maersk) has made an order of six mid-sized container vessels – all having dual-fuel engines able to operate on green1 methanol. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group will build the six 9,000 TEU vessels which will be delivered in 2026 and 2027.
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.
Rabab Boulos
Chief Infrastructure Officer at Maersk
In 2021, Maersk ordered the world’s first methanol-enabled container vessel following a commitment to the principle of only ordering newbuilt vessels that can sail on green fuels. Just two years later, the global orderbook stands at more than 100 methanol-enabled vessels.
By ordering additional six vessels, Maersk now has 25 methanol-enabled vessels on order.
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. Once phased in, they will replace existing capacity in our fleet.
Rabab Boulos
Chief Infrastructure Officer at Maersk
Later this summer, the first methanol-enabled vessel, a 2,100 TEU feeder vessel, will be delivered to Maersk.
About the six new vessels:
1 Maersk defines “green fuels” as fuels with low to very low GHG emissions over their life cycle compared to fossil fuels. Different green fuels achieve different life cycle reductions depending on their production pathway. By 'low' we refer to fuels with 65-80% life cycle GHG reductions compared to fossil fuels. This covers, e.g., some biodiesels. ”Very low” refers to fuels with 80-95% life cycle GHG reductions compared to fossil fuels. For commodity biofuels like, e.g., biodiesel for road transport, the minimum GHG savings are typically governed by standards like the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and we align our minimum reduction thresholds for fuels to the RED. For future fuels like methanol where Maersk is involved in the project design and development, we strive to achieve higher GHG reductions than the legislative thresholds.