Maersk in bellwether methanol conversion with Maersk Halifax
Maersk Halifax was built just seven years ago but has an eventful history
(Source: Maersk)
Container ship Maersk Halifax has been extended and converted to a dual-fuel methanol ready vessel at Zhoushan Xinya Shipyard in China, as well as being elongated to accommodate additional space for methanol tanks.
The 15m of additional vessel length has added 690 TEU of extra container capacity, bringing the vessel up to 15,690 TEU. Even without the vessel’s extraordinary history, the retrofit represents an unusual case, requiring 88 days of vessel downtime to complete the work.
Maersk suggested that it would continue to retrofit its existing fleet, which could drastically accelerate the schedule for its fleet decarbonisation. “In the coming year, we will take learnings from this first conversion of a large vessel,” said Leonardo Sonzio, head of Fleet Management and Technology. “Retrofits of existing vessels can be an important alternative to newbuilds in our transition from fossil fuels to low-emission fuels.”
Delivered in 2017, Maersk Halifax, then Maersk Honam, was crippled by a fire the following year. Subsequent investigation has revealed that the fire likely began with a container of sodium dichloroisocyanurate dihydrate (SDID), a constituent of cleaning chemicals, in the forward cargo holds. Five died in the fire. The vessel was subsequently rebuilt at Hyundai Heavy Industries, in Korea, before being relaunched as Maersk Halifax in 2019.
