Denmark’s Maersk, the world’s second-largest containership, is reportedly in talks with Far Eastern shipyards for a new series of methanol-powered containerships in the 7,000 to 8,000 teu size.
Ships in this size class have become very popular with owners and shippers with no less than 120 units on the order book today. Almost half of these will be delivered as LNG dual-fuel vessels.
Typically these ships will have a compact footprint of 272.00m long and 42.80m (17 rows) wide. Alphaliner often referred to these vessels as the ‘C7K’ class or ‘Compact 7,000 teu’, despite many of the ships being closer to an 8,000 teu entry.
Newbuild prices for this type of tonnage are hard to gauge right now as most of the top tier shipyards are fully booked and deliveries would be quite some way off.
Rough estimates would put such orders at around USD 115 million from a Korean shipyard, but the actual price could vary greatly, depending on the shipyard, technical specifications or delivery schedule.
Such a series of orders would put Maersk back in top position (375,000 TEU) in terms of the “methanol order book”, ahead of CMA CGM (336,000 TEU). That is unless CMA CGM follows through on its alleged plans to order ten methanol-powered 4,000 TEU ships.
Source: Alphaliner
