Maersk or will order 15 large container ships? Evergreen orders another 6000 containers

The boom in the shipping market is prompting shipping companies to order more ships and containers.

According to Alphaliner's data, more than 300 container ships were ordered in the first half of this year. Coupled with the new ship contract signed at the end of 2020, the wave of shipbuilding orders has risen from a low of 2.29 million teu a year ago to June 30. Of 4.94 million teu.

▍Maersk will order 15 large container ships?

According to reports from South Korea, Maersk Line is discussing an order for 12 15,000 TEU methanol fuel container ships with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). The price of each ship is estimated to be around US$170 million.

As of press time, Maersk Line has not responded to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for the HHI holding company Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering said it could not comment on any unconfirmed transactions.

The background of this negotiation is that due to the tight capacity and the slow return of empty containers, the container freight rate has reached astronomical levels, and an "arms race" has been launched among liner operators about new ships. It is estimated that the current global new ship orders account for only a little over 18% of the total number of active fleets.

On July 1, Maersk has confirmed that it has placed an order for a 2100 TEU methanol fuel ship at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, a subsidiary of HHI, and it is expected to be delivered in mid-2023. The ship will be deployed by Maersk’s Sealand European branch to sail the Baltic Sea between Northern Europe and the Gulf of Botnia.

In April this year, at the "Marine Money" conference held in Singapore, Rene Piil Pedersen, managing director of the Asia-Pacific region of Maersk Group, said that the Danish giant will stop buying and building ships that cannot completely eliminate carbon emissions.

Methanol is considered to be an environmentally friendly marine fuel. Compared with traditional fuels, it can reduce 99% of sulfur oxides, 80% of nitrogen oxides and 25% of greenhouse gases. Unlike liquefied natural gas, methanol can be stored and transported at room temperature, and the cost of building fuel infrastructure is lower than that of liquefied natural gas.
▍Evergreen continued to purchase new containers frantically, and ordered another 6000 reefer containers

It is reported that Evergreen Shipping is spending nearly 40 million U.S. dollars to purchase 6,000 refrigerated containers, bringing the fleet (including subsidiaries) to 78,800 boxes.

The Taiwanese liner operator submitted a document to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday that did not specify the type of container, but stated that the order was sent to Guangdong Fuwa Equipment Manufacturing, which only produces reefer containers.

The group is the world's largest manufacturer of trailer axles and started producing reefer containers in 2016.

This latest order marks another round of container procurement by Evergreen Group.

In March of this year, its container leasing and warehousing subsidiary Evergreen International Storage & Transport Corporation (EITC) ordered 18,000 containers from its Malaysian factory, Evergreen Heavy Industrial Corp (M) Berhad. , Spent 69.3 million US dollars.

And the following month, the company ordered 11,000 containers from Dong Fang International Container (Hong Kong) at a cost of US$61.07 million.

In April of this year, Evergreen's two subsidiaries-Evergreen Hong Kong and Panama's Greencompass Marine-ordered 39,500 containers worth US$214 million.

EITC usually leases containers from its parent company and its largest customer. After discovering a growing shortage of containers, the company ordered 15,300 containers in April 2020.

Due to the slow speed of empty containers from North America back to Asian ports, there is a shortage, and cargo owners are competing for containers, which put upward pressure on freight rates.

Evergreen said that expanding its container fleet will improve its competitiveness, especially after ordering new ships. In March of this year, Evergreen commissioned Samsung Heavy Industries to deliver 20 ships of 15,000 TEU by June 2025. In June of this year, the company ordered two more ships of 24,000 TEU from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in China.

From now to 2022, Evergreen will receive 14 ships (11 ultra-large container ships, 2 feeder ships and 1 sub-Panamax) from SHI, Jiangnan Shipyard and Hyundai Mipo Shipyard.