Wan Hai Lines, a shipping company in Taiwan Province of China, is planning to invest heavily in converting eight new-build large container ships with conventional fuel and methanol ready designs to LNG dual-fuel power. This makes Wan Hai Lines another major liner shipping company to switch from methanol to LNG fuel, following Maersk and Evergreen Marine.
As previously reported, Wan Hai Lines signed new shipbuilding contracts for four methanol ready design 16,000 TEU container ships in October 2024 with Samsung Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Samho in South Korea respectively. These newbuildings are the largest container ships Wan Hai Lines has ordered to date, with a price of about $197 million per ship and a total price of about $1.57 billion for the eight ships.
According to Trade Winds, Wan Hai Lines plans to change the eight 16,000 TEU container ships to LNG due to the lack of supply and high price of methanol fuel, which is expected to cost more than $30 million per ship, or more than $240 million for the eight ships.
Last October, Maersk, the initiator and leader in methanol fuel, placed an order with Hanwha Ocean for six 15,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel ships, representing a significant change in the industry giant’s fuel choice. Since then, Maersk has ordered new ships at New Times Shipbuilding and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, all of which are LNG-fueled.
Not coincidentally, another Taiwanese shipowner, Evergreen Marine, has also changed its fuel selection strategy over the past two years, changing its new ship orders from methanol fuel to LNG dual-fuel.
In February this year, the shipowner announced that it had placed orders for 11 24,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel ultra-large container ships at two Chinese and South Korean shipyards, including five at Guangzhou Shipbuilding International and six at Hanwha Ocean. And by 2023, all 24 16,000 TEU container ships ordered by Evergreen Marine at Samsung Heavy Industries and Japan’s Imabari Shipbuilding are powered by methanol dual-fuel.