Twelve big orders worth 6 billion yuan will be spent on two Chinese shipyards!
Maersk's order for 12 dual-fuel feeder containerships worth up to 6 billion dollars is about to go to Chinese shipyards. Worried about the high cost of green methanol fuel, this methanol fuel 'pioneer' may consider switching to ammonia fuel for the new ships, which is also after Duffy Marine, another shipping giant that chooses to change methanol fuel.
Twelve 3500TEU feeder vessels to be ordered, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and Whampoa Wenchong finalists
According to Trade Winds, Maersk has selected Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and Huangpu Wenchong as candidate shipyards for its new batch of 12 3,500 TEU methanol dual-fuel feeder container ships. Estimated to cost as much as $70 million per new vessel, the deal will total as much as $840 million (roughly RMB 5.989 billion).
There is no price for the 3,500 TEU methanol dual-fuel feeder vessels, and for reference, Clarkson's data shows the current newbuilding price for a 3,500/4,000 TEU containership is about $55.5 million, a figure that has already increased by 2.8% from $54 million in the same period last year.
The order will be Maersk's second methanol-powered container ship order in China. In June this year, Maersk ordered six 9,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel medium-sized container ships from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding. This is the first methanol-powered container ship order for Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group, and also the first time for Maersk to place an order for methanol-powered vessels with a Chinese shipping company.
Although Maersk has not ordered container ships in Huangpu Wincheong before, as the shipyard with the largest amount of domestic feeder container ships on hand, Huangpu Wincheong undoubtedly has a wealth of experience in the construction of feeder vessels, and earlier this year has begun to undertake orders for methanol-powered feeder vessels, and is currently building 6+2, 2+2 12-ship medium-sized container ships for the Singaporean shipowner X-Press Feeder and the Danish Unifeeder, respectively. It is currently building 6+2 and 2+2 1250 TEU methanol dual-fuel feeder vessels for Singaporean owner X-Press Feeder and Denmark's Unifeeder respectively.
The news that Maersk would order methanol dual-fuel feeder vessels was first rumored last month, when it was reported that Maersk was considering ordering 10-15 new vessels and had contacted a number of Chinese shipbuilders for this purpose, including Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Huangpu Wenchong, Zhoushan Changhong International and Taizhou Sanfu Shipbuilding, among others.
It is understood that Maersk is pushing forward with its fleet renewal program and has committed to ordering only its own vessels that can sail on green fuel in principle. Up to now, Maersk has ordered a total of 25 methanol dual-fuel containerships from Chinese and Korean shipyards, including the world's first methanol-powered containership, the 2,100 TEU containership 'Laura Maersk', which was delivered by Hyundai Maipo Shipbuilding earlier this year, as well as Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), which is the world's largest manufacturer of methanol-powered containerships. ', as well as Hyundai Heavy Industries is expected to be delivered in the next two years, 12 16,000 TEU and six 17,000 TEU super-large ships; in addition to Yangzijiang Shipbuilding's six 9,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel ships, scheduled to be delivered in 2026 to 2027.
Green methanol cost is too high? Maersk may consider switching to ammonia-fueled container ships
Sources say Maersk may consider ammonia fuel options for the feeder vessels. If Maersk decides to go for ammonia power for the new vessels, it would be the world's first order for ammonia-fueled containerships.
One of the main reasons behind the decision to switch fuels could be the limited availability of carbon-neutral green methanol fuels and the high price of fuels produced from biomass or carbon and hydrogen captured from renewable energy sources, the sources said.
As a leader in the fuel transition in the shipping industry, Maersk was one of the first shipping companies to support methanol fuels. 2021 saw Maersk take the lead in ordering the world's first methanol-powered containerships at HD Hyundai, kicking off a wave of investment in methanol fuels by container carriers.
It is worth mentioning that the French shipping giant Duffy Marine, which also 'supports' methanol fuel, is also considering changing the eight 9,200 TEU methanol dual-fuel containerships it ordered in September at Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding to LNG dual-fuel design, again due to the high price of green methanol fuel.
An international classification society executives also said that the development of new fuels do have uncertainty, the progress of research and development is unpredictable, the price is also a shipowner to consider the factors, Duffy's shift is understandable.
It is understood that, compared with traditional fuels, the use of biomass or renewable energy captured carbon and hydrogen production of methanol (green methanol) can reduce the container ship 60% to 95% of carbon dioxide emissions. However, green methanol is at least twice as expensive to produce as conventional methanol produced from fossil fuels. And current green methanol production is less than 1% of methanol production, and the fact that most green methanol projects are located in China, Northern Europe and North America, far from the major fuel refueling centers of Singapore and the UAE, means that additional emissions and transportation costs will be incurred.
Indeed, the news that Maersk is considering ordering ammonia-fueled vessels comes as no surprise, as the company has long included ammonia as one of its fuel transition options. In September, Maersk announced a partnership with Duffy to drive the decarbonization of the shipping industry, and the two companies plan to jointly research other net-zero emission solutions, such as new alternative fuels like ammonia, or innovative technologies for ships.
Although there are currently no commercial vessels running on ammonia, engine manufacturers have successfully tested the technology, with industry giants such as MAN Energy Solutions and WinGD aiming to have commercial ammonia-fueled engines on the market by 2024 and 2025, respectively. MAN's first two-stroke marine ammonia-fueled engine was successfully tested in July this year.
According to Ship International, the previous order for the world's first methanol-powered feeder vessels and mega-vessels in South Korea by HD Hyundai Group was made by Maersk in cooperation with MAN, Hyundai Heavy Industries Engine Machinery Division (HI-EMD) and other equipment vendors to develop methanol-powered propulsion units on board.
According to Maersk's sustainability goals, the company will be carbon neutral by 2040, at least 10 years ahead of the vast majority of its peers in the shipping industry. At the same time, Maersk has set more immediate goals that call for a 50 percent reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of its ocean-going fleet by 2030, and a 70 percent reduction in absolute emissions from the terminals it fully controls .
Just two days ago, on November 22, Maersk signed a green methanol purchase agreement with Goldwind Green Energy Chemicals, a wholly owned subsidiary of China's clean energy leader Goldwind Technologies. This is the first large-scale green methanol purchasing agreement in the global shipping industry, and will be valid until after 2030.
According to the agreement, Goldwind will complete the final investment decision for the project by the end of this year and start supplying Maersk with green methanol in 2026, including green biomass methanol and electric methanol, all of which will be produced using wind energy. The agreement will cover more than half of Maersk's current methanol-powered ship fuel requirements and support the realization of a competitive market price for green methanol in 2030.