PH deliv­ers world’s first meth­anol car­rier

PH deliv­ers world’s first meth­anol car­rier
GENIVI VERDEJO 21 Jan 2026 https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/manila-times/20260121/2821278228...

PRESIDENT Ferdin­and Mar­cos Jr. led the nam­ing and deliv­ery of Brave Pion­eer, a Kam­sarmax SC-443 and the world’s first meth­anol dual-fuel bulk car­rier, on Jan. 15, 2026, in Bal­am­ban, Cebu.

“May the deliv­ery of this meth­anol-fueled Kam­sarmax ves­sel stand as a sym­bol of what we can achieve when innov­a­tion meets pur­pose. By con­tinu­ing to invest in green tech­no­lo­gies and advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing, we are shap­ing the Phil­ip­pines into a future-ready mari­time hub that can meet the evolving demands of global trade,” the pres­id­ent emphas­ized.

Built by Tsuneishi Heavy Indus­tries (Cebu), Inc. and the Aboitiz Group, the ship marks a devel­op­ment for the Phil­ip­pines, ranked as the world’s fourth-largest ship­builder.

The Brave Pion­eer is designed to meet inter­na­tional ship­ping decar­bon­iz­a­tion tar­gets. Its dual­fuel engine runs on both green meth­anol and con­ven­tional mar­ine fuel, res­ult­ing in a 10-per­cent reduc­tion in car­bon diox­ide, an 80-per­cent cut in nitro­gen oxides, and a 99-per­cent elim­in­a­tion of sul­fur oxides.

Sabin Aboitiz, pres­id­ent and CEO of the Aboitiz Group, said that the ves­sel serves as a “test­a­ment to Filipino world-class tal­ent.”

The ship­build­ing industry in Bal­am­ban has gen­er­ated 12,000 jobs. Aboitiz said nearly 400 ships have been launched from the site, with 380 delivered to inter­na­tional own­ers, not­ing that such projects are “built by Filipino hands and sailed by Filipi­nos throughout the world.”

The Phil­ip­pines hosts over 130 registered shipyards employ­ing more than 11,000 dir­ect work­ers, includ­ing spe­cial­ized weld­ers and fit­ters. In 2024, the nation pro­duced 484 ves­sels, ran­ging from small fish­ing boats to large cargo ships.

Mari­time Industry Author­ity (Mar­ina) Admin­is­trator Sonia Malaluan said that this tra­ject­ory is expec­ted to con­tinue, stat­ing that the mod­ern­iz­a­tion of the sec­tor will “only accel­er­ate as the gov­ern­ment pushes for the pas­sage of the Ship­building and Ship Repair (SBSR) Devel­op­ment Bill.” Malaluan said this pro­posed legis­la­tion aims to mod­ern­ize infra­struc­ture and fur­ther pro­fes­sion­al­ize the mari­time work­force.

Pres­id­ent Mar­cos said that the industry’s com­pet­it­ive­ness is fur­ther sup­por­ted by the Cre­ate Law, which provides fiscal incent­ives for shipyards adopt­ing low-car­bon tech­no­lo­gies.

By pro­du­cing a meth­anol-powered Kam­sarmax, the Phil­ip­pines has demon­strated the tech­nical capa­city to man­u­fac­ture com­plex cargo ships for the global mar­ket. The stra­tegic hub in Bal­am­ban com­bines for­eign tech­no­logy with local labor to meet the require­ments of global trade.