Wallenius Wilhelmsen Bets $1.5 Billion on Up to 12 LNG Car Carriers

Wallenius Wilhelmsen has signed a deal worth up to $1.5 billion for as many as 12 LNG dual-fuel car carriers, the largest newbuilding program in its history now stretched to 26 vessels including options.

The Oslo-headquartered group announced Wednesday an agreement with China's Jinling Shipyard (Jiangsu) for four 9,900-CEU pure car and truck carriers, with deliveries starting in mid-2030. Options cover four more ships in 2031 and another four in 2032. Exercise everything, and capex hits roughly $1.5 billion.

The ships follow the company's Shaper Class design: dual-fuel LNG engines, hoistable decks, heavy-duty ramps and flexible cargo spaces built to swallow passenger vehicles, trucks and other rolling equipment.

What does this change for shippers?

Capacity, mostly. The order extends a fleet renewal campaign launched in 2023 — a program Wallenius Wilhelmsen itself calls the biggest it has ever run. The company already takes delivery of Shaper Class vessels, and the new units will both modernize the fleet and add capacity across its global network when tonnage arrives from 2030 onward.

For automotive and high-and-heavy shippers, the pitch is flexibility. The vessels' configurable cargo spaces are designed to absorb shifting demand across both markets — a point the company made explicitly in announcing the order.

"We continue to see attractive opportunities in the segments we serve and want to ensure we have the capacity, flexibility and efficiency needed to support our customers well into the next decades," said Xavier Leroi, chief operating officer of shipping services at Wallenius Wilhelmsen.

"Expanding our newbuilding program with deliveries from 2030 reflects our confidence in the long-term fundamentals of the market," he added.

How the deal is funded

The newbuilding agreement follows a private placement completed earlier this month, which the company used to keep investing in long-term fleet requirements. The sequencing matters: equity first, steel second. Wallenius Wilhelmsen is not leaning on the orderbook and hoping the market pays for it later.

The group operates roughly 130 vessels across 15 trade routes serving six continents. Its wider logistics arm includes vehicle processing centers, inland distribution operations and marine terminals — so the fleet investment sits inside an end-to-end network, not a pure ocean play.

The LNG question

The order doubles down on alternative-fuel-capable tonnage. LNG dual-fuel propulsion offers a pathway to cutting certain emissions compared with conventional marine fuels, though the overall climate benefit depends partly on methane emissions and fuel sourcing. That caveat is real, and charterers with strict emissions targets will read the fine print.

The company frames the program as insurance: maintaining capacity and operational flexibility as shipping demand builds into the next decade.

With firm deliveries beginning mid-2030 and options running to 2032, Wallenius Wilhelmsen has locked yard slots deep into the next decade — a signal that it expects the ro-ro orderbook, and the automotive trade that fills it, to stay tight for years to come.