COSCO Shipping， the world’s fourth largest containerline， has ordered a dozen 14，000 teu ships at a sister firm in Jiangsu province rounding off one of the busiest months for global containership orders ever.

The state-run line is paying $2.15bn for the methanol dual-fueled ships which will be built at COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Yangzhou

The ships， which will feature substantial reeefer slots， will be deployed on Asia-Latin American tradelanes.

COSCO， the world’s largest shipowner， is a big believer in methanol as a future fuel. Last year it teamed with three other state-run firms – State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC)， Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG)， and China Certification & Inspection Group (CCIC) – to develop a green methanol industrial chain which will comprise the production， transportation， refueling， and certification of green methanol for ships.