The delivery of AP Moller-Maersk’s first large methanol-enabled vessel shows where the industry is headed this year.
Maersk christened the 16,000-teu Ane Maersk at a private ceremony today in the shipyard of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea.
The vessel was named after Ane Maersk Mc-Kinney Uggla, chair of the AP Moller Foundation and AP Moller Holding.
While many of the accolades will be for the vessel’s green credentials, the delivery symbolises a threat to the boxship sector with the onslaught of hundreds of newbuildings ordered during the boom years of the pandemic.
Those deliveries are racking up. In the first three weeks of the year, shipping lines received 204,000 teu of capacity from yards, according to Alphaliner estimates.
That amounts to more than one ship per day joining the global liner fleet.
While vessels such as the Ane Maersk grab the limelight, it is the Danish company’s 2M partner MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company that could have a bigger market impact.
The Geneva-based giant took in about 72,000 teu or 35.4% of all new capacity this year to 22 January, Alphaliner estimates.
That is double the proportion delivered to Maersk, China’s Cosco Group and French liner operator CMA CGM.
The deliveries look like speeding up. Alphaliner estimates 460 ships of 3m teu will join the fleet this year, easily topping last year’s record of 2.35m teu of capacity that phased in during 2023.
Green push
About one-third of the vessels to be delivered will be powered by alternative fuels such as LNG and methanol.
That amounts to 95 vessels of 930,000 teu and includes the Ane Maersk, one of 18 large methanol-enabled vessels that will be delivered to Maersk between 2024 and 2025. It will enter service in February on the AE7 string connecting Asia and Europe.
“Ane Maersk will begin her maiden voyage on green methanol and Maersk continues to work diligently on 2024/2025 sourcing and bunkering solutions for its methanol-enabled vessel fleet,” said chief executive Vincent Clerc.
Maersk has also been taking deliveries of conventionally powered vessels.
It is deploying the 15,516-teu Maersk Cincinnati (built 2024), delivered on 16 January.
This is the fourth of six ships delivered from CSSC Group’s Jiangnan Shipyard to tonnage provider Seaspan and chartered to Maersk and Ocean Network Express.
Maersk then has six more methanol-powered neo-panamax sister ships scheduled for delivery in the rest of the year.
But the Danish carrier’s orderbook pales in comparison with the number of vessels coming from its rivals.
MSC will take delivery of four neo-panamax newbuildings this month, including the 16,464-teu MSC Idania and LNG-powered 15,600-teu MSC Rose (both built 2024), which will be deployed on MSC’s Asia-Europe services.
These will compete with several ultra-large container ships coming on stream, such as the 24,200-teu OOCL Valencia (built 2024), delivered early this month. It is the seventh of 12 ships and will serve in Orient Overseas Container Line’s Asia-Europe LL1 service.
Other vessels delivered in January include the 13,100-teu Wan Hai A13 (built 2024), which Taiwanese carrier Wan Hai Lines will deploy in its transpacific services.
Damage limitation
The sudden arrival of so many deliveries has so far not damaged the freight market.
Container freight rates have doubled in the past month as the Red Sea crisis continues — and there are signs that they may even rise further in the short term.
The delivery of so many newbuildings may therefore be welcomed, because more ships are needed as lines avoid the Suez Canal and take the longer east-west route around the Cape of Good Hope.
Over the longer term, however, the fear remains that the sheer amount of capacity joining the global fleet might cause a headache later in the year, argues Alphaliner. That may be especially felt if current diversions stop and ships return to their normal routes.
