Rodolphe Saade’s CMA CGM is understood to be adding at least $3.5bn worth of container ship newbuildings to its extensive orderbook.

Multiple shipbuilding sources say the French liner company has pencilled in 20 newbuildings with HD Hyundai group shipyards.

They added that the world’s third-largest container line has inked letters of intent for a series of 16,000-teu and 8,000-teu container ships, all of which will be LNG dual-fuelled.