CMA CGM puts methanol ship Lorenzaccio on its Red Sea service
Only her bunker records will show how much of the loop runs on methanol.
Lorenzaccio's rotation, checked port by port against where methanol has actually been delivered this year.
CMA CGM's new 15,000 TEU ship Lorenzaccio can run on methanol or fuel oil between China, Singapore and the Red Sea. Four of her Asian ports now supply methanol, but none of her Red Sea calls has reported a delivery. So the methanol she burns there is loaded in Asia, and how far it lasts has not been published.
CMA CGM has named the CMA CGM Lorenzaccio, a 15,000 TEU container ship that can burn methanol or conventional fuel oil. She joins REX2, the carrier's weekly service from China and Singapore to the Red Sea. Methanol is on sale at one end of that loop. At the other end, none of her ports has reported a delivery.
REX2 loads at Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou and Nansha in China, and at Singapore. It then calls at Djibouti, at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, at Ain Sokhna in Egypt and at Aqaba in Jordan. It calls at Jeddah again on the way back. Four of the Asian ports supply methanol. In March, Shanghai delivered 3,643 tonnes of green methanol to CMA CGM's Osmium. Ningbo and Nansha have reported deliveries this year, and Singapore now has licensed methanol suppliers.
I found no methanol delivery at any of her four Red Sea ports. So any methanol she burns west of Singapore has to be loaded in Asia and carried there.
That does not put the service at risk. She is dual-fuel and can switch to fuel oil wherever methanol runs out. So how far does a stem loaded in Shanghai or Singapore carry her? The figures needed to answer that have not been published. Lorenzaccio's tank capacity has not been published. Her sister CMA CGM Monte Cristo is reported to have an 11,000 cubic metre methanol tank. Methanol also carries much less energy per tonne than fuel oil. Nobody has said whether one Shanghai stem lasts the westbound leg.
No rule on this loop requires her to try. None of the ten ports is in the EU, so EU emissions trading and FuelEU Maritime do not apply to these voyages. Burning methanol here is CMA CGM's own choice, and CMA CGM pays the price gap.
Because no regulator collects the answer, the bunker record is where it will show. A methanol stem for Lorenzaccio reported at Shanghai or Singapore would show her running on the fuel she was built for. Until one appears, only CMA CGM knows how much of REX2 runs on methanol.
Primary sources
- officialShanghai Port sets national record with green methanol bunkering Shanghai Municipal People's Government, 2026-03-10
