Maersk Line signed a new building order with COSCO Shipyard for seven 3,600TEU container vessels.

The vessels will have a length of 200 meters, a width of 35.2 metres, and a 10-metre draft. COSCO Shipyard and Maersk Line have kept the price of the contract confidential.

Maersk Line has said it plans to invest $US15 billion over the next five years to go into vessel new building, retrofit programme, containers and other equipment.

The vessels, built to trade in Northern Europe through sea ice, will be operated by Seago Line who will deploy the vessels in the Baltic and North Sea regions. They will replace several container vessels, half the size or less of the new buildings.

The vessels will sail on marine gas oil (MGO). They are therefore compliant with the SOx (Sulphur oxides) emission limits, which went into force on January 1 this year, creating the ECA (Emission Control Area) zone in Northern Europe.

The vessels will be delivered between April and November in 2017. The order includes an option for two additional vessels to be declared within eight months.

It is the first time that Maersk Line has placed a new building order with COSCO Shipyard. It is also the first time the shipyard will build container vessels.