The world’s largest container line has placed nine firm 14,000-teu vessels with the largest shipyard in the business. Options are also in place for a further eight newbuildings.

Soren Toft, Maersk Line’s chief operating officer and the man who penned the contract, said: “I am very pleased about this order for which we have taken a new approach.

“The vessels will be designed to operate in and perform efficiently across many trades and not just designed for one specific trade. They will help us stay competitive and make our fleet more flexible and efficient.”

The newbuildings, for which TradeWinds had previously report a letter of intent to have been signed, form part of a $15bn fleet expansion and upgrading initiative at the container line.

More orders to come

This year has already seen Maersk Line break an order drought stretching back to 2011 with a series of seven feeder vessels at Cosco, followed by the booking at DSME of 11 19,600-teu ships – the largest in the company’s history.

While Maersk Line has been on an order run in the past few months, Toft says today's deal is not the end of the company’s newbuilding needs.

“We will need to invest in ships in the coming years,” he said. “We might be a bit more quiet here in the summer time but it’s not the last order.”

He declines to speculate on what size of vessels Maersk may turn to next.

“At the end of the day it’s not the size that matters,” he said. “It’s how good you are at utilising the assets. That’s what brings the efficiency per unit.”

Meeting growth strategy

Maersk Line has signed the deal at HHI just a week after the last of its 20 Triple-Es, the Mathilde Maersk, was delivered from DSME, Toft says.

He explains the 18,000-teu series has allowed Maersk Line to meet its strategy of growing in line with the market.

However, given expectations of 5% growth over the next few years, more vessels are needed for the company to maintain this policy.

“The time has come now to order new as under the strategy we have of growing with the market, we will be running out of capacity in 2017 no matter how good we do our daily operations,” he said.

Toft notes the company has around 250 owned ships and 350 chartered vessels, “and they don’t get younger by the year”.

“Some of those ships will be redelivered to the charter owner and some of our own we will have to scrap or sell,” he said.

“So when you add one more year of growth, you also add one more year of age to the vessels. It is a portfolio of ships we are running and not just an incremental business of adding new ones every year.”