Reports: Maersk Line to Order 10 More Mega-Ships

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday May 12, 2015

Maersk Line is expected to complete an order for 10 mega-containerships with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) in a deal worth over $1.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

“The new order — likely six firm ships and four options — will be announced in coming weeks and deliveries will start in 2017,” said an unnamed source. 

The details of the order are still unknown, with some reports having speculated that the first four ships of the order will have a capacity of 20,000 TEU, with the remaining seven as options. 

The ships are likely to be deployed on Maersk Line's Asia to Europe route as part of the shipping company's 2M alliance with Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC). 

Maersk Line previously ordered 20 of its 18,000 TEU Triple-E containerships from DSME for roughly $185 million each. 

The industry has increasingly moved towards adopting mega-containerships to cut down on per-unit costs, though experts have also said that the trend is exacerbating the overtonnaging problem that has brought down freight rates dramatically. 

Although freight rates reportedly saw an increase this week of 151 percent, experts said that the jump was due to delayed general rate increases across all shipping lines, with rates expected to decline again in the coming weeks. 

It was reported earlier this month that waning dry bulk demand from China is also poised to send dry bulk rates crashing even more, as slightly increased demand from the U.S. will not make up for decreases in Europe and Japan. 

Ship & Bunker News Team
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