Driven by the profitability pivot improvement of shipowners, the stage of excess capacity gradually digested, ship type and shipowner orders structural imbalance and environmental protection power, a new round of container ship “order tide” to come. Recently, the global container liner companies have introduced new shipbuilding projects, Chinese shipyards have become the first choice of major shipowners.
Recently, Italia Marittima S.p.A. (ITS), a subsidiary of China’s Taiwan-based shipping company Evergreen Marine, made an announcement that it has decided to place an order for the construction of six 2,400 TEU methanol dual-fuel powered feeder containerships at Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding at a price of between US$52 million and US$58 million each, with the total value of the order being between US$312 million and US$348 million. And deliveries are expected to start from the second half of 2026.
It is understood that Evergreen Marine started the bidding procedure for six 2,400 TEU methanol dual-fuel powered feeder containerships in April this year, which is another order of methanol dual-fuel ships following the order of 24 large 16,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel powered containerships to Samsung Heavy Industries (16) and Nippon Shipyard (8) at a cost of US$4.32 billion to US$5.04 billion in July 2023.
With the finalization of the above order, Evergreen Marine has invested more than US$10 billion in the new shipbuilding field since 2021, which also marks Evergreen Marine as the second container head shipowner to formally place orders for shipbuilding this year after Japan’s Oceanic Network Associated Shipbuilding (ONE).
Earlier this year, Japan’s ONE announced an order for 12 13,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel containerships, with Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and Jiangnan Shipbuilding building six of them respectively. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2027, and this is the first order for methanol dual-fuel boxships for this Japanese shipowner.
According to Evergreen Marine, the choice of methanol as an alternative fuel for new ships will help to reduce CO2 emissions, which is in line with the environmental requirements of the International Maritime Organization and the European Union for the shipping industry, and at the same time help the company to reach its carbon reduction targets.
Currently, Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding has become one of the most favored shipyards for Evergreen Marine in the feeder containership field. As early as 2021, the two sides signed a one-time contract for 24 feeder containerships in three types, including two 1,800 TEU, 11 2,300 TEU and 11 3,000 TEU containerships, with a total price of about US$958 million to US$1,098 million.
Clarkson data show that, excluding the latest orders, Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding existing hand-held orders for 96 ships, including containerships, bulk carriers, multi-purpose vessels, tugboats, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers and other vessels, the delivery date scheduled to 2028.