Hamburg-based liner Hapag-Lloyd has ordered another six 23,500+ teu ultra-large container vessels at South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).

The vessels will be equipped with high-pressure dual-fuel LNG engines, and are scheduled for delivery from 2024. The vessels will also have sufficient tank capacity to operate on conventional fuel as an alternative.

The six additional ships have been financed via a $852m syndicated green loan that has a maturity of 12 years from the date of delivery. The transaction was concluded in accordance with the Green Loan Principles of the Loan Market Association.

“With this investment in the additional newbuildings, we want to take another step in the ongoing modernisation of our fleet – in terms of both ship size and sustainability,” said Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd. “At the same time, we want to meet the persistently high demand and reduce our slot costs.”

The German liner had already placed an order for six ships of the same size at the end of 2020. The vessels will be deployed on the Europe-Far East routes as part of THE Alliance.