OOCL orders seven methanol-ready container ships
Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has become the latest container line to opt for methanol as an alternative fuel, with seven massive 24,000 TEU methanol-ready ships for $1.68 billion.
PHOTO: OOCL Berlin passing beneath the Tsing Ma Bridge, Hong Kong. OOCL
The methanol-ready container ships will be built by Chinese shipbuilding company Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering and delivered from the third quarter of 2026.
OOCL’s chief operating officer Kenny Ye says that these methanol-compatible vessels will be an important step in the company’s “decarbonization journey towards a greener future.”
Classification society DNV’s data shows that the number of methanol-fuelled vessels currently in operation or on order for delivery this year stands at 25.
This number will more than triple over the next few years. A total of 84 methanol-fuelled vessels are registered as in operation or on order towards 2028.
Methanol has been gathering momentum as an alternative fuel choice among container liners in particular recently. Several liners have joined projects to launch green corridors between major ports like Rotterdam and Singapore.
Their incentive to do so has partly come from freight heavyweights like Amazon, IKEA and Unilever, which launched the Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Vessels (coZEV) consortium last year. The consortium pledged a move to zero carbon shipping by 2040.
China's COSCO Shipping Lines (a COSCO subsidiary like OOCL) placed a similar order for five 24,000 TEU dual-fuel container ships that can run on methanol.
Last month, A.P. Moller - Maersk put in an order for six 17,000 TEU dual-fuelled methanol container ships, bringing its total orderbook to 19. And Hong Kong-based dry bulk shipping company Pacific Basin Shipping chose methanol as the preferred fuel for its dual-fuel dry bulk carriers.
In July, Norway-headquartered feeder shipowner MPC Container Ships (MPCC) ordered two methanol-ready 1,300 TEU vessels for delivery in the second half of 2024.
By Tuhin Roy
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