Maersk's Next Methanol-Fuelled Boxship to Join Market in January

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Friday December 8, 2023

Container shipping and logistics firm AP Moller-Maersk is set to hold a naming ceremony for its second methanol-fuelled boxship in January.

The naming ceremony for the 16,000 TEU boxship will be held at its shipyard in South Korea in late January, after which it will join the company's AE7 Asia-Europe service, Maersk said in a statement on its website this week.

The new ship's methanol-fuelled predecessor, the 2,100 TEU feeder vessel Laura Maersk, was named in September.

"Deploying the first of our large methanol-enabled vessels on one of the world's largest trade lanes, Asia - Europe, is a landmark in our journey towards our Net-Zero target," Karsten Kildahl, chief commercial officer at Maersk, said in the statement.

"With the vessel's capacity of 16,000 containers, this will make a significant impact in our customers' efforts to decarbonise their supply chains, and we are looking forward to introducing more methanol-enabled vessels on this and other trades during 2024."

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.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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