It has recently been learned that the French shipping giant CMA CGM has signed a contract with South Korea's HD Hyundai Heavy Industries to build 12 18,000 TEU liquefied natural gas dual-fuel container ships, valued at 3.716 trillion Korean won (2.58 billion US dollars). All vessels are scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2028.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries claims that this is the largest ship order so far this year, and thus has attracted widespread attention.

The industry speculates that CMA CGM is rapidly surpassing Maersk and is expected to become the world's second-largest container shipping company.

In July last year, CMA CGM had already placed an order for 12 15,500 TEU container ships with the HD Hyundai Group, with a total value of 3.68 trillion Korean won (about 2.66 billion US dollars), and the cost of each ship was about 222 million US dollars. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Samho each undertook the construction of 6 ships, which are planned to be delivered before June 2028.