Maersk has ordered six mid-sized container vessels fitted with dual-fuel engines able to operate on green methanol. Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group will build the six 9,000 TEU ships which will be delivered in 2026 and 2027.

Rabab Boulos, Chief Infrastructure Officer at Maersk said, “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 vessels ordered in the last two years, these ships will be able to run on green methanol.”

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 an additional six vessels, Maersk now has 25 methanol-enabled vessels on order.

Rabab Boulos continued, “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.”

Photo: The new ships have the capacity to carry 9,000 20ft containers.