MOL adds more LNG-powered ships

Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) is growing its LNG-fuelled fleet, announcing today orders for gas-powered newcastlemaxes to be built at CSSC Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding and two VLCCs to be constructed by Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering.

This marks the first time a Japanese company has ordered LNG-fuelled VLCCs. The MOL news is also the first confirmed VLCC orders anywhere in the world since June last year, bringing to an end a record ordering drought for the supertanker sector. All ships announced by MOL today will deliver in 2025 and 2026.

The orders take MOL’s LNG-fuelled fleet to 16 ships with the company saying it plans to order plenty more, with a view to eventually substituting many of them with synthetic methane produced using renewable energy sources.

More pertinently, MOL, the largest shipping company in Japan in dwt terms, included in its release its predicted fleet fuel mix going forward to 2050. The forecast sees ammonia and hydrogen fueled ships being ordered this decade and for these two fuel types set to become the dominant forms of propulsion in the decades ahead for the Tokyo-headquartered company.