SINGAPORE, April 11 (Reuters) - South Korea’s largest shipper, Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd (HMM), plans to order 20 mega container ships to better compete in the global market, it said on Tuesday.
HMM said it planned to order a dozen ships with a carrying capacity above 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit containers (TEU) and eight 14,000 TEU container ships.
“Through the acquisition of the most technologically advanced mega container ships, we can strengthen cost competitiveness and react rapidly to the international environmental regulations,” the company said.
To comply with stricter emissions regulations coming into effect in less than two years, the South Korean shipper said it would opt for either installing scrubbers on its new-builds or fuelling them with liquefied natural gas (LNG).
HMM has begun the selection process for the shipyards it would award its order to and the decision on how it would comply with environmental regulations would depend on the discussions with the selected shipbuilder.
The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) in 2016 ruled it would slash sulphur emissions limit on ships worldwide to 0.5 percent by 2020, from the current 3.5 percent. (Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)