Maersk Secures 200,000 MT/Year Green Methanol Supply in China

Maersk is one of the world's largest bunker consumers. Image Credit: Maersk

Container shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk has signed a deal setting up 200,000 mt/year of green methanol supply in China.

The firm has signed a letter of intent with Chinese bioenergy firm Debo seeking to develop a 200,000 mt/year biomethanol production facility, it said in a statement on its website on Friday. 

Commercial operations at the plant are expected to start from the autumn of 2024. The plant will use agricultural residues as its feedstock, and Maersk plans to take all of its output.

"Maersk has set an ambitious end-to-end net-zero goal for 2040 and the availability of green methanol at scale is critical to our fleet's transition to sustainable energy," the company said in the statement.

"Partnerships across ecosystems and geographies are essential for the scale-up needed in order to make meaningful progress on this agenda already in this decade."

Maersk is one of the world's largest bunker consumers, and has given significant support to the nascent methanol bunker industry in recent years by announcing its first carbon-neutral vessels will run on green methanol.

The firm's first methanol-powered ship, a 2,100 TEU feeder vessel, is due for delivery in the middle of next year. It has a total of 13 container ships representing 194,100 TEU -- or 4.6% of its current total cargo capacity -- on order.

The challenge now is for the company to secure enough methanol to run these ships. The firm has previously said it may need as much as 6 million mt/year of the alternative fuel by 2030.

Maersk currently has partnerships which should deliver 730,000 mt/year of methanol by the end of 2025.