AP Moller-Maersk has recently ordered six mid-sized container vessels—all powered by dual-fuel engines operating on green methanol. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group will build the six 9,000 TEU vessels, which will be delivered in 2026 and 2027. The first methanol-enabled vessel, a 2,100 TEU feeder vessel, will be delivered in a couple of months.
“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,” said Rabab Boulos, chief infrastructure officer at Maersk.
Maersk is an integrated logistics company working to connect and simplify its customers’ supply chains. As a global leader in logistics services, the company operates in more than 130 countries and employs over 110,000 people worldwide. Maersk aims to reach net zero emissions by 2040 across the entire business with new technologies, vessels, and green fuels.
In 2021, Maersk ordered the world’s first methanol-enabled container vessel following a commitment to only ordering new-built ships that can sail on green fuels. Two years later, the global order book has more than 100 methanol-enabled vessels. By ordering additional six vessels, Maersk now has 25 methanol-enabled ships 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 our current and future networks, offering the flexibility our customers demand. Once phased in, they will replace the existing capacity in our fleet,” said Boulos.
The six new vessels, all built by the Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group, will have a capacity of 9,000 containers (20-foot equivalent-TEU), and will be delivered in 2026 and 2027. All will feature dual-fuel engines that can operate on fuel oil and methanol. Upon delivery, the vessels will replace the existing capacity in the Maersk fleet. By replacing vessels in a similar size segment, the new ships will reduce Maersk’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 450,000 tons of CO2e per year on a fuel lifecycle basis when operating on green methanol.
Meanwhile, Maersk defines “green fuels” as fuels with low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over their life cycle compared to fossil fuels. According to the shipping company, different green fuels achieve different life cycle reductions depending on their production pathway. By “low”, they refer to fuels with 65 to 80% life cycle GHG reductions compared to fossil fuels. It covers, for example, some biodiesels. “Very low” refers to fuels with 80 to 95% life cycle GHG reductions compared to fossil fuels.
For commodity biofuels like biodiesel for road transport, the minimum GHG savings are typically governed by standards like the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and the company aligns its minimum reduction thresholds for fuels to the RED. For future fuels like methanol, where Maersk is involved in the project design and development, it strives to achieve higher GHG reductions than the legislative thresholds. (Story and photo courtesy of Maersk).