Shipowners are supporting the surge back towards LNG as a marine fuel with 66 newbuilding orders placed in October, according to classification society DNV.
Unveiling monthly figures from its Alternative Fuels Insight (AFI) platform, DNV said LNG was once again the biggest driver, building on its strong momentum since July with 58 of the 66 orders for alternative fuelled vessels coming from the container ship sector.
DNV also highlighted that October proved to be the strongest month of 2024 for methanol with 29 newbuildings ordered that can use the fuel, 20 of which were bulk carriers.
DNV said 97 new orders for alternative-fuelled vessels were placed in October 2024.
The class society said that orders for alternative-fuelled newbuildings contracted in the first 10 months of this year were up 46% on 2023’s total, at 464 vessels.
DNV’s figures show there are currently 609 LNG-fuelled vessels in operation with a further 632 ships on order. The bulk of these are container ships, comprising 123 existing dual-fuelled LNG vessels with a further 303 under construction.
The class society records 54 methanol-dual-fuelled ships as in operation with a further 342 on order, again with the majority of those newbuildings — some 216 — being container ships.
DNV’s statistics show the shift towards alternative fuelling is underway. While of the number of ships in operation 99.17% of these use conventional fuels and just 0.83% alternatives, for those on-order vessels the split is 82.31% conventional and 17.69% alternative.
Those figures are starker in gross tonnage terms where under-construction conventional vessels account for 56.68% and alternative-fuelled 43.42%.
DNV Maritime global decarbonization director Jason Stefanatos said: “October marked the strongest month ever of new ordering for the alternative-fuelled fleet, maintaining the strong momentum that has been notable in the second half of 2024.
Stefanatos added: “The growth has clearly been led by LNG. Since July, 177 new orders for LNG-fuelled vessels have been placed, compared to 52 in the first six months of the year, primarily driven by an industry-wide uptick in activity from the container segment.
“Methanol is also demonstrating some resilience. With 162 orders for methanol-fuelled vessels placed in the first 10 months of the year, the total figure for 2023 has already been surpassed .”
