Ocean Yield orders methanol-ready container ship

Norwegian shipowner Ocean Yield has put in an order for a 5,500 TEU dual-fuel container ship that can be converted to run on methanol.

The ship will be built by HJ Shipbuilding in South Korea. Ocean Yield expects to take delivery of the vessel in November next year, and will time-charter it for seven years to Israeli ZIM Integrated Shipping Services.

According to a recent tally by classification society DNV, there is a total of 52 methanol-fuelled or methanol-ready ships in operation or on order globally.

Most of these are oil and chemical tankers (25) and container ships (21). There are also some gas tankers (2), offshore vessels (2) a RoPax vessel and a tugboat.