Danish shipping giant Maersk is celebrating the launch of its world's first green methanol-powered container ship on April 4 at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in South Korea.

The vessel, a 2,100 TEU capacity feeder, is the first of 19 carbon-neutral vessels ordered by Maersk to be powered by green methanol fuel.

The 172-meter-long vessel was ordered in July 2021 from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in South Korea and is scheduled for delivery later this year. The vessel will be operated under Maersk's Sealand Europe brand on the Baltic shipping route between Northern Europe and the Gulf of Bothnia. In addition, Maersk is integrating the brand into the name "Maersk".

In August 2021, Maersk ordered eight more 16,000 TEU green methanol-powered vessels from Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea, and later exercised options for four more sister vessels. In November 2022, the company announced an order for six more 17,000 TEU methanol-powered vessels from Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. The 18 vessels being built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea are scheduled for delivery in 2024 and 2025.

Maersk has set ambitious sustainability goals to become carbon neutral by 2040, a decade ahead of most other companies in the industry. The company has also set near-term targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its maritime fleet by 50 percent by 2030 and absolute emissions from its fully controlled terminals by 70 percent.

To power its fleet of methanol-fueled vessels, Maersk has been busy finding suppliers to source the approximately 1 million metric tons of green methanol fuel these vessels need each year. This will result in approximately 2.3 million metric tons less CO2 entering the atmosphere each year compared to conventionally fueled ships.

According to Brand Value Network, Maersk's order of methanol-powered container ships for energy saving and cleaner production, which helps achieve carbon reduction and carbon neutral targets, is in line with the construction of social responsibility system, a secondary indicator under the primary indicator social responsibility in China Brand Value Evaluation Standard, which will improve the company's ranking on "(Daguan·Keweiwei) The World Brand Value Top 900". According to "(Daguan·Keweiwei) The 3rd World Brand Value Top 900" released in March 2023, Maersk's brand value is 38.372 billion CNY, ranking the 662nd.

www.bvrcn.com   Brand Value Network

作者：Trina Yao