Orderbook - Types of Fuel (3.º Trimestre 2023)

Orderbook - Types of Fuel (3.º Trimestre 2023)

Carriers’ green ambitions push orderbook to record high

An increasingly gloomy outlook and the spectre of structural overcapacity that appears on the horizon, carriers have continued to place orders for new container tonnage throughout the year. 

In the first nine months of 2023 alone, another 187 vessels have been added to the global newbuilding pipeline. Predominantly ordered by the carriers themselves rather than by tonnage providers, these ships represent some 1.75 Mteu of additional fleet capacity. 

This has brought the global vessel orderbook to a record high of 7.88 Mteu, equivalent to almost 29% of today’s fleet capacity. There are two obvious reasons why ordering continues at such as massive scale: 

       

    1) Firstly, most carriers are still sitting on large amounts of cash after having        made record profits in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    

    2) Secondly, and more importantly, it is the desire to decarbonize liner shipping     that drives the ordering frenzy. 

Methanol-powered ships represented 52% of all new capacity ordered this year, while LNG-powered newbuildings accounted for 31% of the 2023 orders, bringing the total share of ‘green’ ships to 83%. 

These recent orders continue to increase the ‘green’ portion of the container ship orderbook, which in September stood at 28% for LNG-powered ships and 19% for methanol dual fuel units. 

The global orderbook now counts 139 methanolpowered box vessels. These include three ‘methanol-ready’ 16,000 teu ships for COSCO, ordered at the group’s own Yangzhou Shipyard, and ten ‘methanol and ammonia-ready’ 13,700 teu vessels that ONE ordered from Imabari. Alphaliner will not count these ships as ‘green’ until they are retrofitted to actually operate on alternative fuels. 

Of all carriers, CMA CGM has placed the largest orders this year, opting for both LNG-propulsion (for another ten ‘megamax’ ships) and methanol dual fuel (for six 15,000 teu, twelve 13,000 teu and eight 9,200 teu newbuildings). In total, the Marseille-based carrier will pay an estimated price of USD 6.5 bn for these 36 ships. 

Evergreen of Taiwan meanwhile opted for methanol as alternative fuel for another 24 ships of 16,000 teu, which represent an investment of more than USD 4.62 bn.

MSC will increase its LNG-powered fleet by another twenty ships of 10,300 and 11,400 teu, which it ordered at Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard.

Maersk, which operates the 2,136 teu LAURA MAERSK as the only methanol-powered container ship currently in service, has this year increased its orderbook for methanol dual fuel ships to 24 units by ordering six 9,000 teu ships at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding. Its orderbook is expected to grow further as the Danish carrier is reported to be in the process of selecting a shipyard for the construction up to 15 methanol-powered ships of 3,500 teu. 

With another 76 methanol dual fuel vessels ordered this year, bringing the total to 139 units, the decarbonization challenge will be moving from the vessel to the strategic procurement of sustainable fuels. This also goes for ammonia, which after LNG and methanol joins the race as the next ’green’ fuel. 

CMB/Delphis in May received the 6,014 teu CMA CGM MASAI MARA, which is the fist ‘ammonia-ready’ ship in the container fleet. Through its subsidiary CMB.TECH, the Belgian shipowner is developing engines that can burn ammonia and its plans to have these ready by 2026. Retrofits of ‘ammonia-ready ships’ are then scheduled to kick off in that same year. 

CMB plans to produce ‘green’ ammonia in Namibia, where the group already invested in a hydrogen production plant at Walvis Bay. The energy needed for the production of ammonia is to be produced by a solar park. The new plant will have a capacity of 250.000 tons per year. CMB intends to deploy tankers for the transport of its ‘green’ ammonia from Namibia to Europe.