Maersk May Wait Until 2025 for Green Methanol Supply

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday December 9, 2021

Shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk may not have green methanol supply in place for the maiden voyages of its new 16,000 TEU boxships.

The firm ordered the eight ships in August, with delivery due from the first quarter of 2024. The company's first carbon-neutral ship, a 2,100 TEU feeder vessel, is due for delivery in mid-2023, and Maersk has already secured green methanol supply for this vessel.

But the company is less certain about having enough methanol on hand for all of the the larger vessels as soon as they are delivered, it said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"I'm still optimistic that we will get at least some of these big ships operating on green methanol in 2024," Morten Bo Christiansen, head of decarbonisation strategy at Maersk, said at the online event.

"2025 is looking a lot better.

"Will we get it for the maiden journey for the first ship? I cannot promise you that.

"But in 2025, 2026, then actually the pipeline looks a lot better."

The company has yet to sign supply agreements for the larger ships, but is in dialogue with several suppliers and expects to need deals with more than one to secure the 280,000-360,000 mt/year of green methanol the eight ships will need.

The ships will run on VLSFO if methanol is not available.

At the press conference on Wednesday the company revealed some of the design details for the new ships. The vessels are 20% more energy efficient than the industry average, and their designers have made changes to the location of the accommodation on board to incorporate a 16,000 m3 methanol tank without losing cargo capacity.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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