Asia/Pacific News
Maersk Signs 500,000 MT/Year Green Methanol Deal
Container shipping and logistics company AP Moller-Maersk has signed another deal securing green methanol supply for its ships.
The firm has signed a long-term offtake agreement with China's Goldwind to take on 500,000 mt/year of green methanol, it said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.
The output will be both biomethanol and synthetic methanol, both produced using wind power at a facility in Hinggan League in the northeast of China. Production is expected to begin in 2026, and Goldwind expects to confirm a final investment decision for the facility by the end of this year.
"We are encouraged by the agreement because its scale and price confirm our view that green methanol currently is the most viable low-emission solution for ocean shipping that can make a significant impact in this decade," Rabab Raafat Boulos, chief infrastructure officer at Maersk, said in the statement.
"The deal is a testament to the momentum and vast efforts we see among ambitious developers driving projects forward across geographies, however, we still have a long way to go in ensuring a global green fuels market that can enable the decarbonisation of global shipping."
Maersk took delivery of its first methanol-powered boxship in September, the 2,136 TEU feeder vessel Laura Maersk. The firm has a further 12 16,200 TEU vessels, six 17,000 TEU ships and six 9,200 TEU ones on order, all capable of running on methanol.
"We have now secured green methanol supply for more than half of our current order book of methanol enabled vessels," Morten Bo Christiansen, head of energy transition at Maersk, said in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.
Maersk consumed a total of 10.58 million mt of marine fuels last year, down from 11.09 million mt in 2021.
Methanol is rapidly gaining in popularity as an alternative marine fuel, with orders of methanol-fuelled tonnage now coming in regularly from a variety of shipping segments. The main challenge for this market will be the scaling-up of green methanol supply in time to meet the needs of the new ships as they are delivered.
