The world’s largest shipping company is investing US$1.4 billion (£1 billion) to accelerate the transition to a carbon-neutral business, ordering eight container ships that can use traditional marine fuels and methanol as fuel.
Danish shipping company Maersk stated that its investment in new ships will help transport goods from companies such as H&M Group and Unilever, while reducing carbon emissions by more than 1 million tons per year by replacing old fossil fuel-powered ships.
The ship order signed with Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea is the largest step taken so far to decarbonize the global shipping industry Accounted for nearly 3% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The shipping industry has The response to calls to reduce fossil fuels has been relatively slow Part of the reason is that cleaner alternatives are in short supply and higher prices.
Søren Skou, Chief Executive Officer of Maersk, said: “If we are to solve the climate challenge of the shipping industry, now is the time to take action.
“This order proves that carbon neutral solutions are now available in the container ship sector, and Maersk is always committed to satisfying more and more customers who want to decarbonize their supply chain.
“In addition, this sends a firm signal to fuel producers that the huge market demand for future green fuels is rapidly emerging.”
Each of these eight ships can hold 16,000 containers and is expected to be delivered in early 2024. They will be 10-15% more expensive than fuel-fueled container ships, with a cost of US$175 million per ship.
The Danish company’s goal is to only order new ships that can use carbon-neutral fuels, as it seeks to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Maersk said that more than half of its 200 largest customers (including Amazon, Disney and Microsoft) have set or are setting targets to reduce supply chain emissions.
Maersk plans to use methanol instead of fossil fuels to run ships as soon as possible, but admits that this will be challenging because it will require a significant increase in the production of “appropriate carbon-neutral methanol”.
The company formulated a plan last week to produce green fuel for its first ship to use carbon-neutral methanol with REintegrate, a subsidiary of Danish renewable energy company European Energy.
The Danish plant is expected to produce about 10,000 tons of carbon-neutral e-methanol, using Green hydrogen Combine the carbon emissions captured by burning bioenergy (such as biomass).
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Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, CEO of Maersk Fleet and Strategic Brands, stated that the green methanol partnership could “become a blueprint for how to expand the scale of green fuel production” and “decarbonize our customers’ supply chains.”
She said that the new member of the Maersk fleet is “the ideal large ship type for sustainable global high seas trade in the next few decades” and “will provide our customers with a unique high seas carbon-neutral transportation method while balancing them The need for competitive flight schedule costs and flexible operations”.
Leyla Ertur, Head of Sustainability at H&M Group, said that Maersk’s investment in large ships using green methanol is an “important innovation step”. Support retailers’ climate goals“Achieve climate neutrality by 2030 and climate positive by 2040.
