South Korean shipping company HMM announced that it has signed new shipbuilding contracts for nine 9,000-TEU container ships powered by methanol dual-fuel engines.
The move is being pursued as part of the shipping company major’s future growth strategy, which has earmarked $11.3 billion for future investments. These include the expansion of eco-friendly ships from the current total of 820,000 TEUs to a target total of 1.2 million TEUs by 2026.
During the World Leaders Summit of COP27 in November 2022, South Korea announced its desire to accelerate the decarbonization of the shipping industry through the early adoption of zero-emission fuels and relevant technologies.
The ships are scheduled to be deployed on the Asia-North America and Asia-Latin America trade lanes and the Asia-India routes, with expected delivery from 2025 to 2026. HMM said that the green shipping corridors between Busan in Korea and key ports in the U.S. are also one of the potential routes to operate the new ships.
