Maersk and Hyundai Mipo Dockyards have agreed on a contract for Hyundai Mipo to build a feeder vessel with a dual engine technology enabling it to sail on either methanol or traditional very low Sulphur fuel.

Maersk announced the intention to order the vessel, an industry first, on 17 February, 2021. It will fly the Danish flag.

“This ground-breaking container vessel shows that scalable solutions to properly solve shipping’s emissions challenge are available already,” said Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, CEO of Fleet & Strategic Brands, A P Moller - Maersk. “From 2023 it will give us valuable experience in operating the container vessels of the future while offering a truly carbon neutral product for our many customers who look to us for help to decarbonise their supply chains.”

The vessel will be 172 meters long and will sail in the network of Sealand Europe, a Maersk subsidiary, on the Baltic shipping route between Northern Europe and the Bay of Bothnia.

“Developing this vessel is a significant challenge, but we have already come a long way in our work with the yard and the makers to reach this milestone,” said Ole Graa Jakobsen, Head of Fleet Technology, A P Moller - Maersk. “While we are pioneering these solutions for our industry, we are working with well-proven technologies and the cost potential from further scaling is becoming very clear to us.”

More than half of Maersk’s largest customers have set, or are setting, ambitious science-based or zero carbon targets for their supply chains, making the order another important step in the Maersk efforts to support the rising number of customers calling for carbon neutral products.

Photo: The vessel will sail the Maersk Sealand Baltic shipping route.