Maersk Line to Order 11 More Triple E Boxships in Second Quarter

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Friday February 27, 2015

Maersk Line CEO Soren Skou has confirmed that the company is looking to order 11 new Triple E mega-containerships in the second quarter of 2015, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

The deal for the 18,000 TEU capacity vessels is expected to be worth about $1.8 billion, with Skou commenting that 11 boxships would be needed to make a weekly round trip from Asia to Northern Europe.

"We need to grow with the market and increase our capacity by 425,000 containers from 2017 onward for three years," said Skou, adding the he expects demand for seaborne-moved cargo to grow three to five percent this year. 

"Over the past 10, 15 years prices have come down on average one to two percentage points a year. We need to build a business that can sustain that kind of deflationary pricing market," said Skou.

"I can’t have a strategy that is based on a hope that prices will magically start increasing."

Maersk Line predicted earlier this year that long-term freight rates on the East-West route would remain pressured, especially as overcapacity continues to be a problem. 

Earlier this month market watches had predicted Maersk Line's order would be for 10 new boxships placed by the end of the first quarter.  

Ship & Bunker News Team
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