HMM joins race for methanol-fuelled vessels with $1.12 billion order

South Korean shipping major Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) has ordered methanol dual-fuel engines for nine of its container ships.

PHOTO: HMM's container ship Algeciras. HMM

The nine ships will have 9,000-twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity each and be delivered between 2025-2026.

South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries will build seven of them, and HJ Shipbuilding and Construction will build the other two.

These ships will be deployed along the Asia-North/Latin America and Asia-India trade routes, according to HMM. “In particular, green shipping corridors between Busan in Korea and key ports in the US are also one of the potential routes to operate the new ships.”

At COP27 in November last year, the US and South Korea announced plans to explore green shipping corridors between major ports in their countries. If HMM's upcoming ships will consume green methanol - as they will be capable of - they could fall into the fold of ships supporting a South Korea-US corridor with uptake of sustainable fuels.

HMM has also signed offtake agreements with five methanol suppliers to fuel its upcoming fleet, including Proman, PTTEP, European Energy and Hyundai Corporation.

Shipping giants A.P. Møller – Mærsk and COSCO Shipping Lines are already in the lead with double-digit orders for methanol-fuelled vessels. Maersk has also signed offtake agreements with 10 methanol producers.

Other candidates include French shipping major CMA CGM, which has ordered six methanol-powered vessels with a capacity of 15,000 TEU for delivery by 2025. A European company has also recently ordered a dozen methanol-fuelled vessels from South Korean shipbuilder Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE).

By Konica Bhatt

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