Orders for alternative-fuelled ships are running 57 per cent ahead of last year, according to figures from the classification society DNV, reported by gCaptain.
Shipowners ordered 53 alternative-fuelled vessels in October, taking the year-to-date total to 364, DNV's Alternative Fuels Insight platform records.
The October total was dominated by liquefied natural gas, which accounted for 30 of the orders: 18 containerships and 12 car carriers. A further 19 orders were for LPG carriers, and four ammonia-fuelled car carriers were added to DNV's database.
The ammonia orders mark another step towards commercial adoption of that fuel, although the technology and the bunkering infrastructure needed to supply it remain at an early stage of development.
Across 2026 so far, LNG accounts for 230 of the alternative-fuel orders, about 63 per cent of the total. Containerships lead that segment with 134 orders and car carriers follow with 75; together the two types make up more than 90 per cent of this year's LNG newbuild orders.
The October figures extend a recovery in contracting that began over the summer, after a relatively slow start to the year. The third quarter brought orders for 168 alternative-fuelled vessels, the highest quarterly total in two years, and September alone accounted for 69.
"October's figures add to the strong activity we have seen in alternative-fuelled vessel ordering since the summer," said Jason Stefanatos, global decarbonisation director at DNV Maritime. "Particularly notable is the continued concentration of LNG-fuelled orders in container ships and car carriers."
He pointed to LNG's established supply chain and growing bunkering network as advantages over competing fuels. "LNG's continued prominence is also supported by the comparatively mature infrastructure and supply chain around the fuel," he said.
The option of moving to lower-carbon fuels later also gives owners flexibility when ordering ships expected to stay in service for decades.
LNG's popularity comes amid continuing debate about its long-term climate performance, which depends on factors including methane leakage and engine emissions. It can reduce some air pollutants compared with conventional marine fuels.
This newspaper has read the figures and finds one point in them that the industry's own vocabulary conceals. Of 364 alternative-fuel orders, 230 are for the same alternative.
The word is carrying a quantity of work. An alternative fuel is defined by not being the conventional one, which makes the category a description of what a ship does not burn rather than of what it does.
Take the definition at face value and the fleet is diversifying at speed into a single option. Within the LNG orders the concentration tightens again: 209 of the 230 are containerships or car carriers, so more than nine in ten of this year's LNG ships are two kinds of ship.
The Department of Unnecessary Research has accordingly revised the heading. A 57 per cent rise in alternative-fuel ordering is a 57 per cent rise in the number of owners who have reached the same conclusion.
That leaves the remainder to carry the industry's variety. Nineteen LPG carriers and four ammonia-fuelled car carriers were ordered in October, and the four are described as another step towards commercial adoption.
Our analysts accept that characterisation and would put it only slightly differently. The fuel of the future is being adopted commercially at a rate of four car carriers a month, by a fleet that has spent the year ordering something else.