Chinese shipyards become the biggest winners! Maersk bets on "gas" and then places a big order

Following Mediterranean Shipping and CMA CGM, Danish shipping giant Maersk will also throw out a blockbuster new order, planning to spend about 20 billion yuan to order LNG dual-fuel container ships. With a clear price advantage, Chinese shipyards are expected to be the biggest winners of this batch of orders.

According to trade wind news, Maersk plans to order up to 12 18,000TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered container ships, and invite shipyards to quote on two options: 8+4 ships and 6+6 ships, and the quotation deadline is August 1. The total value of the new ships is between US$2.5 billion and US$2.8 billion (about 17.960 billion yuan to 20.115 billion yuan), and the delivery time is set for 2029. Maersk hopes to finalize the new shipbuilding project within this year.

Ship brokers generally expect that Maersk may eventually choose Chinese shipyards to place orders considering price factors. At present, the quotation gap between Chinese and South Korean shipyards for LNG dual-fuel container ships of this specification is about $20 million, and for bulk orders like Maersk, the premium to choose Korean shipyards will become more obvious.

For reference, at the beginning of this year, CMA CGM ordered as many as 24 18,000TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered ships in Chinese and South Korean shipbuildings, of which 12 orders undertaken by Jiangnan Shipbuilding were priced at about US$207 million to US$208 million, while the price of 12 orders undertaken by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering was US$215.4 million.

If Maersk moves forward with this round of tenders, it will be its second round of LNG dual-fuel container ship orders. Last year, Maersk, which had been firmly investing in methanol fuel, suddenly turned around and publicly announced that it would invest in LNG dual-fuel ships. In the second half of last year, Maersk itself ordered as many as 20 LNG dual-fuel container ships at three shipyards in China and South Korea, with a total capacity of about 300,000 TEUs.

Among them, Yangtze River Shipbuilding received orders for two 9,000 TEU and six 17,000 TEU container ships from Maersk, with a cost of US$130 million each and US$210 million each, New Era Shipbuilding received orders for six 15,000 TEU ships with a cost of about US$200 million each, and Hanwha Marine also received orders for six 15,000 TEU ships with a unit price of about US$210 million.

In addition to the above-mentioned 20 self-owned ship orders, Clarkson data shows that Maersk also cooperated with a number of shipowners to order 34 dual-fuel container ships last year, with a total capacity of about 460,000 TEUs. These include 4 9,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel ships, 8 9,000 TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered ships and 10 17,000 TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered ships ordered by Seaspan in Yangtze River Shipbuilding, as well as 5 16,800 TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered ships ordered by Seaspan and Norway's SFL Corporation in New Era Shipbuilding, in addition to Japanese shipowner Lepta Shipping ordered a 9000TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered ship in Yangtze River Shipbuilding.

So far, Maersk has basically completed the scheduled orders disclosed in its fleet renewal plan released in August 2024. It is understood that in August last year, Maersk announced that it was signing new ship orders and time charters for dual-fuel container ships, planning to order and lease about 50-60 dual-fuel container ships, totaling about 800,000 TEU, of which about 300,000 TEU are owned ships, and the remaining 500,000 TEUs will be leased and operated through time charter agreements.

In February, it was reported that Maersk was making inquiries to three Chinese shipyards and planned to order up to 12 15,000TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered container ships, including state-owned and private shipyards. However, Maersk's order failed to make substantial progress after the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) proposed to impose huge port fees on Chinese-built ships at the end of February.

It is understood that Maersk is currently the second largest container shipping company in the world. According to the latest data from Alphaliner, as of now, Maersk's fleet has a total capacity of 741 ships and 4.61 million TEUs, including 341 owned ships and 400 chartered ships, with a market share of about 14.2%. In addition, Maersk has 49 new ships under construction, with a total of 670,000 TEUs, accounting for 14.4% of the existing fleet.

Since the beginning of this year, although the growth rate of global new ship orders has slowed down significantly compared with last year, container ship orders have continued to emerge. According to Clarkson, in the first seven months of this year, a total of 246 new container ship orders of 2.51 million TEUs were placed, which has exceeded the order level of 217 ships of 1.59 million TEU in 2023, equivalent to 54% of the 4.65 million TEU new ship orders in 2024, and last year's new container ship orders set a record high.

As Maersk's main competitor, the world's largest container shipping company, Mediterranean Shipping has been active in the new shipbuilding market this year. In February this year, Mediterranean Shipping signed an order for four more 21,700TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered container ships with Changhong International. In April, Mediterranean Shipping ordered six additional 22,000TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered container ships in Hengli Heavy Industry. In June, Mediterranean Shipping ordered 4 21,700TEU dual-fuel ships in Changhong International and 4 21,000TEU dual-fuel ships in Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding. In July, Mediterranean Shipping continued to order two additional ships of the same type in Changhong International, three 21,000TEU dual-fuel ships in Hantong Shipbuilding Industry and China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu), and two additional 22,000TEU dual-fuel ships in Hengli Heavy Industry.

CMA CGM, the world's third largest container shipping company, has also ordered 12 18,000TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered ships in Gangnam Shipbuilding and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering this year. Recently, it was reported that CMA CGM is planning to order up to 12 container ships of 21,000 TEU to 24,000 TEU, and has sent inquiries to a number of Asian shipyards, which is the first time in two years that CMA CGM has ordered more than 20,000 boxes of super-large container ships.

It is worth mentioning that CMA CGM's current fleet capacity has reached 685 ships of 4.02 million TEU, and the number of hand-held orders is as high as 94 ships of 1.49 million TEU, accounting for 37.1% of the existing fleet capacity. Judging from the current hand-held orders, after all the new ships under construction are delivered, CMA CGM's fleet capacity will surpass Maersk to rank second in the world.