The world's largest container firm in February outlined plans to order 10 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit container ships with the option for another 20 similar vessels to capitalise on expected growth on Asia-Europe trade. Each vessel costs $190 million.
"The first decision will come in June and we do expect we will exercise that option for an additional 10," Maersk's Chief Executive Nils Andersen told reporters after an industry event in Singapore.
Maersk will decide later in the year whether to exercise a further option for 10 mega ships. A senior Maersk official in February said the option on the final 10 vessels was a long shot.
The new ships will add to Maersk Line's current fleet of more than 600 vessels and help it keep its industry-leading market position.
The Triple-E class vessels, measuring 400 metres (1,312 feet) long, 59 metres wide and 73 metres tall, will be the world's largest container ships.
They will be 16 percent bigger in capacity than the current largest ships in Maersk's fleet, the E-class.
Consolidation Inevitable
Maersk was expanding its fleet by around 8 percent annually to keep up with global demand growth and not to steal market share, although consolidation was inevitable, Andersen said.
The Danish firm looked to grow its operations in Latin America by placing 16 container vessels to trade in the region starting this month.
Maersk was also looking to expand in Africa, although piracy was a lingering concern especially along the eastern coast.
Andersen said the piracy problem was still not getting enough attention, particularly with more than 700 people still being held hostage in Somalia.
"Sometimes I wonder if two jumbo jets were hijacked, parked somewhere and people were being held hostages under a lot of visibility whether this situation would not be resolved," he said.
The United States in February sentenced a Somali pirate to 33 years and nine months in prison for his role in the 2009 seizure of the Maersk Alabama container ship, in which kidnapped Captain Richard Phillips was rescued while three captors were shot dead by sailors on another vessel.
Maersk has placed armed guards on some of its ships that travel through the Gulf of Aden, Andersen said. (Reuters)
