The shipping paper, Lloyd's List, said that Maersk Line -- an arm of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk was in early talks with yards in China and South Korea to replenish its fleet with boxships bigger than anything that exists today.
The paper cited one ship broker as saying Maersk had asked yards to tender for 10 ships with capacity of 16,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units), bigger than its super-sized vessels of more than 14,000 TEU.
"We have not ordered 10 vessels," A.P. Moller-Maersk's Head of Group Finance Jan Kjaervik told Reuters. "It is a matter of fact that as a normal procedure we are looking at the capacity at the yards and the situation there."
"No decision has been taken to order vessels," he said.
Containership orders came to a halt during the global economic downturn, as the industry struggled, the shipping newspaper said.
"But with demand recovering, and the orderbook shrinking in relative terms after the long standstill, lines now feel more confident about embarking on another round of new-building activity," Lloyd's List said.
Kjaervik said that Maersk, with a large fleet and a roughly 20-year replacement cycle, would eventually need to replace vessels.
"But the judgement that we are making now is to look at the stability of the market," he said.
Maersk Line operates more than 500 container ships carrying 1.9 million TEU or 14 percent of the world's seaborne container goods.
If Maersk Line made a move in the coming months to step up to another class of vessel, it would maintain a competitive edge over its closest rivals, Lloyd's List said.
Taiwan's Evergreen and Singapore's s Neptune Orient Lines have placed orders, and tonnage provider Seaspan has said it is ready to sign contracts for new vessels if yards develop more innovative designs and cut their prices, Lloyd's List said. (Reuters)
