Maersk Said to Be Lining Up Massive Containership Order

By Gavin van Marle (The Loadstar) – Rumors are gaining ground in shipbroking circles that Maersk is on the verge of making a series of huge new orders for vessels, potentially doubling its newbuilding pipeline.

Over the course of last week, analysts at Linerlytica noted that the Danish carrier had been the most active carrier on the charter market “as it scrambles to secure additional tonnage to maintain service coverage to replace chartered vessel redeliveries while having a limited number of new deliveries scheduled for the next 12 months.

“It will start to address the shortage with a massive newbuilding program starting with a fresh series of new ship orders, comprising of a series of 24,000 teu, 19,000 teu and 18,600 teu ships that will only be delivered from late 2029,” it added.

Its weekly new vessel order list detailed unconfirmed reports that Maersk placed an order for twelve 24,000 teu ships with Jiangsu Yangzijiang shipyard, twelve 19,000 teu units with Hengli HI and six 18,600 teu units with New Times shipyard.

According to Linerlytica calculations, Maersk now has 1.5m teu on order, representing 32% of its existing fleet, up from 870,000 teu on order at the end of August.

However, analysts at Alphaliner suggest Maersk’s orderbook could be even larger.

“Maersk is widely believed to have invited Chinese and Korean yards to propose offers for around 20 ultra-large vessels of at least 24,000 teu.

“Additionally, the carrier is said to have invited offers for another 20 ships of between 18,000 and 20,000 teu.

“Assuming an average vessel size of 21,000 teu, the rumoured 40-ship ‘mega’ order could add some 840,000 teu to Maersk’s orderbook, pushing the carrier’s newbuilding programme from 1.21m teu to 2.05m teu and 134 ships, the second-largest after MSC and ahead of COSCO,” Alphaliner writes today.

However, it notes that CMA CGM may be behind the order for twelve 24,000 teu ships from Yangzijiang, after the shipyard reportedly signed a letter of intent to build that number of dual-fueled boxships with an undisclosed shipping line.

“Alphaliner has not been able to identify the carrier yet, but believes that CMA CGM should be seen as the most likely owner-operator behind this LOI.

“Alphaliner learned earlier this year that CMA CGM was ‘in the market’ for another series of ‘megamaxes’.

“Yangzijiang is already the builder of ten MARIC-designed LNG dual-fuel ‘Jacques Saade Mk-III’ class ships with an intake of 24,212 teu.

“The first of these was handed over in May and the series is due for completion by March 2028,” it added.

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