Evergreen has ordered 24 container vessels with individual capacities of 16,000 teu, the Taiwanese carriers confirms in an announcement Tuesday.

All vessels are fitted with dual-fuel technology, ready to sail on methanol. The unit price of the vessels is between USD 180m and USD 210m.

16 of the vessels will be built at Samsung Heavy Industries, according to a statement to the Taipei Stock Exchange. These will have a total price between USD 2.8bn and 3.3bn.

The remaining eight vessel will be constructed at Nihon Shipyard Co at a total price of USD 1.4-1.7bn.

The combined Evergreen group currently commands a fleet of 127 container vessels with a total capacity of 953,786 teu plus another 88 vessels on charter.

Evergreen is just the latest example of the group of huge liner companies that are betting on methanol as one of its future’s fuels. Recently, Maersk upgraded its number of ships on order that will be able to sail on methanol to 25.

Also, carriers like CMA CGM and Singapore-based X-Press Feeders have ordered series of dual-fuel vessels that can sail on methanol.

With the announcement, Evergreen confirms what was stated in the beginning of May by Maersk Broker: The box carrier planned on expanding its fleet with 24 new methanol-fueled vessels.

According to Maersk Broker, the major order would likely be distributed among several shipyards, and the brokerage firm considered the large South Korean yards as frontrunners in the race.

In recent months, freight rates have been on a dwindling trajectory following the pandemic soar, propelled by abundant demand. But still, the order book for new container vessels is high.