Maersk Line orders seven ice-class container vessels

Today, Maersk Line signed a new building order with COSCO Shipyard Co., Ltd in Zhoushan China. The order is for seven (7) 3,600 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent) container vessels. The vessels will have a length of 200 meters (m), width of 35.2m, and a 10m draft. COSCO Shipyard and Maersk Line have agreed to keep the price confidential.

The order is the first step in the investment programme announced by Maersk Line. Over the next five years USD 15 billion will go into vessel new building, retrofit programme, containers and other equipment. Hereby, Maersk Line will be able to add capacity in line with growth in global container shipping demand as well as replace less efficient chartered tonnage.

“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 has ordered the vessels for 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 achieve unprecedented economies of scale. They will provide Seago Line short-sea and feeder customers with competitive services, also in the winter.

Seago Line will deploy the vessels in the Baltic and North Sea regions. They will replace several container vessels, half the size or less of the new buildings. The vessels will sail on marine gas oil (MGO). They are therefore compliant with the SOx (Sulphur oxides) emission limits, which went into force 1 January 2015, creating the ECA (Emission Control Area) zone in Northern Europe.

The vessels will be delivered in April - November 2017. The order includes an option for two (2) additional vessels to be declared within eight (8) months.

It is the first time, that Maersk Line places a new building order with COSCO Shipyard. It is also the first time the shipyard will build container vessels. However, the Maersk Group has worked with COSCO Shipbuilding Group in the past. Maersk Line also uses the shipyard for vessel retrofits and dry docking.

“I am very confident that COSCO Shipyard, with their solid shipbuilding experience and a good track record will deliver high quality and fuel efficient vessels,” says Søren Toft.

About Seago Line

Seago Line is a container shipping company dedicated to the intra-Europe and Mediterranean market. Seago Line’s geographical scope includes the European region, all countries in the Mediterranean area, Russia and Baltics. Seago Line has offices in 25 major countries throughout the region. 400 staff and 67 vessels with a capacity of around 133,000 TEUs makes Seago Line one of the largest short-sea and feeder operators in Europe and well positioned to create value for our clients. Seago Line was established in 2011 and is a fully-owned subsidiary of Maersk Line.

About Maersk Line

Maersk Line is the world’s largest container shipping company, known for reliable, flexible and eco-efficient services. We provide ocean transportation in all parts of the world. We serve our customers through 374 offices in 116 countries.

We employ 7,100 seafarers and 25,500 land-based employees and operate 610 container vessels. We market our services through the Maersk Line, Safmarine and SeaLand (Intra-Americas) brands. Maersk Line is the holding company for MCC Transport (Intra-Asia), Seago Line (Intra-Europe) and Mercosul (Brazil).

Maersk Line is part of the Maersk Group, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Group employs about 89,207 people in around 130 countries. 2014 revenue: USD 48 billion.