CMA CGM rebuilds 12 large ships with more than 2 billion US dollars, why?
According to several foreign media reports including Tradewinds, this "European client" is CMA CGM. The new ships will be delivered in December 2026, with a total contract value of approximately US.05 billion.
If the order is finalized, it will be the second batch of methanol-powered container ships ordered by CMA CGM. The total number of orders for this type of ship will reach 18, and the scale of green ships will be further expanded.
At the same time, the number of newly built ships of CMA CGM will reach 101, with an ordered shipping capacity of more than 970,000 TEUs, second only to the 1.8 million TEUs of the "big shipbuilder" Mediterranean Shipping Company.
In August 2022, CMA CGM reached an agreement with Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Group, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, to order six 15,000TEU methanol-powered container ships with a total order value of about US billion. These ships are scheduled to be delivered in the second half of 2025.
This is CMA CGM's first methanol-powered container ship order, and CMA CGM has also become the second liner company to order methanol-powered container ships after Maersk.
Previously, CMA CGM’s green ships have been focusing on the field of liquefied natural gas (LNG) power. Regarding the ordering of methanol-powered container ships, CMA CGM once explained that in order to diversify the fleet’s energy sources, it will achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. , will accelerate the decarbonization process by investing heavily in natural gas and methanol fuel.
The current container shipping market is in a downward range. Many liner companies have reduced their shipping capacity, but some companies are "doing the opposite". What are the reasons?
As we all know, under multiple pressures such as the expected downturn in the global economy and the tense geopolitical situation, the demand in the container shipping market has fallen rapidly from the high point at the beginning of 2022. The industry is not very optimistic about the supply and demand prospects of the container shipping market in 2023.
However, it should be noted that the container shipping industry is a traditional strong cyclical industry, and liner companies’ judgment on the market is based on long-term considerations for the future. In particular, large liner companies need to ensure their own cost advantages and industry competitiveness, which requires them to optimize their transport capacity in advance structure. At the same time, with the entry into force of IMO's new environmental protection regulations, liner companies are also facing the pressure of decarbonization.
The vast majority of recent new shipbuilding orders are large ships that use green energy.
In addition to this order, at the end of 2022, South Korea's largest liner company HMM announced a new shipbuilding plan to order nine 8,000TEU methanol-powered container ships. At the beginning of 2023, industry insiders revealed that MSC will continue to order 10 11,400TEU dual-fuel container ships at Chinese shipyards.
It can be seen that ordering green ships at this time not only has the company's prediction of the future external market, but also the demand for internal fleet renewal.
Among all the green fuels currently used, methanol has the highest heat. Maersk has stated that green methanol is the most scalable green fuel in the next ten years.
