Evergreen announced that it is planning a massive fleet expansion plan and ordering twenty-four 16,000 teu methanol dual-fuelled containerships at a total cost of up to $5 billion.
As the company said, it has completed two contracts that could represent an investment for as much as $5 billion for new methanol dual-fuel containerships. Brokers reported in April 2023 that the carrier had begun a tender process seeking proposals from the leading shipyard for a new class of containerships.
Samsung Heavy Industries received the larger portion of the order for a total of 16 containerships. Each will have a capacity of 16,000 TEU with a cost of between $180 million and $210 million per ship. Speculation is that deliveries would start in 2026 based on the available building slots at the yard. The contract with the South Korean builder is valued at between $2.88 billion and $3.36 billion.
Yard capacity is also being speculated as the reason that Evergreen decided to split the order between multiple yards. The second contract was signed with Japan’s Nihon Shipyard Co. They will build a further eight vessels also with a 16,000 TEU capacity and the same cost per ship. This second contract is valued at between $1.44 billion and $1.68 billion.
As explained, the new vessels will be deployed between Asia and Europe to address the emerging EU ETS regulations and other environmental requirements set to go in place for European ports and shipping.
