Maersk Line yesterday announced an order for seven new 3,600 TEU containerships from COSCO Shipyard in Zhoushan China as part of a 5-year USD15 billion newbuild and retrofit plan for their company’s vast global fleet.
This is the first order for containerships that COSCO’s Zhoushan’s yard has ever received. The ships will measure 200 meters in length with a beam of 35.2 meters and 10 meters draft.
“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,” says Søren Toft, COO in Maersk Line. “We expect to place additional orders during 2015.”
Maersk Line says this order was placed for their Seago Line, its fully-owned container shipping line dedicated to short-sea services in Europe and throughout the Mediterranean region.
The vessels, built to trade in Northern Europe through sea ice, will provide Seago Line short-sea and feeder customers with competitive services, also in the winter, the company says.
The ships will be fueled by marine gas oil (MGO) to comply with IMO SOx emissions requirements in the Northern Europe emissions control area.
The vessels will be delivered in April – November 2017 and includes an option for two additional vessels to be declared within eight months.
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