50 new ships on the way: Maersk bets on new fuel
A part of the Maersk fleet will, in the future, sail on liquid biomethane (bio-LNG).
This morning, A.P. Møller-Maersk has announced the next step in the company’s large-scale fleet renewal plan, which reveals that Maersk aims to add between 50 and 60 new ships with dual-fuel machinery to the fleet between 2026 and 2030.
The many new ships correspond to a capacity of 800,000 TEU, which can be compared with the total capacity of the entire Maersk fleet, which is approximately 4.3 million TEU.
In combination with the existing newbuilding program, A.P. Møller-Maersk will thus be able to boast that 25 percent of the fleet by 2030 will be capable of sailing on less CO2-intensive fuels than heavy bunker oil.
For the first time
This is the first time A.P. Møller-Maersk has started to explore alternatives to methanol as a substitute for traditional bunker oil as fuel in its upcoming newbuildings.
According to the published materials, the company has commenced work that will lead to the signing of contracts for the supply of liquid biomethane (bio-LNG) as fuel for a number of the upcoming dual-fuel newbuildings.
However, Maersk does not wish to disclose just yet how many of the up to 60 new ships between 2026 and 2030 will be prepared for both biomethane and methanol. The company does emphasize that it continues to see methanol as the most competitive alternative fuel in the short term.
- In the long term, we expect a future where various alternative fuels - including liquid biomethane - will need to complement each other, the statement says.
Time charter agreements
The Danish shipping company expects that the significant fleet renewal between 2026 and 2030 will need to be done through time charter agreements (500,000 TEU of the planned capacity) - as well as its own newbuilding projects (300,000 TEU of the planned renewal).
According to the published materials, the fleet renewal is solely intended to replace older vessels in the fleet, therefore there is no expectation from Maersk to significantly expand its total capacity.
A.P. Møller-Maersk's fleet renewal program was launched in 2021 with the contracting of the first methanol-ready container ships.
Since then, orders have been announced for 25 Maersk-owned container ships with dual-fuel machinery, which allows for sailing on methanol fuel. Five of these newbuilds have already been delivered.
According to the newbuilding plan, newbuildings corresponding to a capacity of 160,000 TEU should join the Maersk fleet every year.
As far back as 2019, A.P. Møller-Maersk identified biomethane as one of the fuel types with the potential to replace heavy bunker oil in deep-sea shipping. Read the article here.
In the long term, we expect a future where various alternative fuels - including liquid biomethane - will need to complement each other
