Denmark's Maersk gets 6 more green menthol-run container vessels

“Our customers are looking to us to decarbonise their supply chains, and these six vessels able to operate on green methanol will further accelerate the efforts to offer our customers climate neutral transport. Global action is needed in this decade in order to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to a 1.5°C temperature rise,” Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, CEO of fleet and strategic brands at Maersk, said in a press release.

Maersk has set a net-zero emissions target for 2040 across the entire business and has also set tangible near-term targets for 2030 to ensure significant progress. This includes a 50 per cent reduction in emissions per transported container in the Maersk Ocean fleet compared to 2020 and a principle of only ordering newbuilt vessels that can be operated on green fuels. The six 17,000 vessels running on green methanol will save about 800,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

With the order, Maersk has in total ordered 19 vessels with dual-fuel engines able to operate on green methanol.

“Green methanol is the best scalable green fuel solution for this decade, and we are excited to see several other shipowners choosing this path. It adds further momentum to the rapid scaling of availability needed to bring down the premium on green methanol and accelerate the evolution of climate neutral shipping,” said Palle Laursen, chief fleet and technical officer at Maersk.

Benchmarked against conventional fuel capabilities, additional capital expenditure (CAPEX) for the methanol dual-fuel capability is in the range of 8-12 per cent, which is an improvement compared to when Maersk ordered eight vessels with the same technology last year, added the release.

The six 17,000 TEU vessels are all to be delivered in 2025 and will sail under the flag of Denmark. They all come as 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. When all 19 vessels on order are deployed and have replaced older vessels, they will generate annual CO2 emissions savings of around 2.3 million tonnes.

Maersk further reiterates its strategy of maintaining a fleet capacity at a maximum of 4.3 million TEUs, as a combination of Maersk managed and time-chartered vessels.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)