ContainersEurope

Maersk orders seven boxships in China, more could follow

London: Maersk Line has ordered seven 3,600-teu containerships from the Cosco Shipyard in Zhoushan, China – and more orders could be on the way this year.

The order includes an option for two additional vessels to be declared within eight months. The companies did not disclose a price.

“We expect to place additional orders during 2015,” Søren Toft, COO of Maersk Line, said in a statement today.

Maersk has ordered the vessels for its short-sea shipping subsidiary Seago Line, which will deploy the vessels in the Baltic and North Sea regions.

The vessels will be 200 m in length, 35.2 m wide, with draft of 10 m. Each newbuilding is around twice the size of the ship it will replace, Maersk says.

The vessels will be fuelled by marine gas oil (MGO) in compliance with limits on sulphur content in marine fuel used in the Baltic and northern Europe emission control areas (ECA).

The Copenhagen-based group says it is investing $15bn over the next five years in new vessels, a retrofit programme, plus containers and other equipment to keep pace with the growth of global trade.

“I am very happy to announce this new order and the first in our investment programme. Our strategy is to grow with the market and to do so we need new vessels from 2017,” Søren Toft said.

This is the first newbuilding order Maersk Line has placed with Cosco Shipyard, and will be the first time the yard has built container vessels. 

Holly Birkett

Holly is Splash's Online Editor and correspondent for the UK and Mediterranean. She has been a maritime journalist since 2010, and has written for and edited several trade publications. She is currently studying for membership of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. In 2013, Holly won the Seahorse Club's Social Media Journalist of the Year award. She is currently based in London.
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