Maersk Line Confirms $1.8 Billion Order for its Largest Ever Mega-Containerships

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday June 4, 2015

Maersk Line Wednesday confirmed an order for eleven 19,630 TEU capacity container ships at a cost of $1.8 billion.

The ships will be the largest in the company's fleet, and follows its last order back in 2011, when Maersk Line ordered 20 Triple-E containerships for $3.7 billion.

"I am very happy with this order. These vessels will help us stay competitive in the Asia – Europe trade and will be key in our strategy to grow with the market," said COO Søren Toft.

"It is the second order this year and we expect to order more vessels, which we can add to our fleet from 2017 and onwards." 

As with the previous order, the new ships will also be built by South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).

Maersk Line said that it is also planning to invest $15 billion over the next five years in newbuilds, retrofits, containers and other equipment.

The company said earlier that it had outlined a strategy to grow its business alongside the estimated 3-5 percent rise in container volumes over the next four years.. 

Reports claiming that Maersk Line was ready to make its second mega-ship order first appeared early this year. 

CEO Soren Skou then confirmed that the order was to be made in the second quarter of 2015. 

At the time, Skou said that the larger boxships would be necessary as it wanted to "grow with the market" and increase capacity by 425,000 containers from 2017 onward for three years.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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