Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS) has confirmed an order valued at US$823M for six 14,812-TEU container ships with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI)
Each vessel will have LNG dual-fuel propulsion and reefer slots. These originally formed an order in September 2019 for six vessels of 12,000 TEU at South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) which were annulled but only officially confirmed recently, according to BRL Weekly Newbuilding.
Deliveries for the new box ships will stretch from August 2022 to early 2023. The container ships are valued at US$137.16M each and will incorporate dual-fuel propulsion using LNG.
BRL said the loss of the order “was a blow to DSME who recently confirmed it missed its own newbuilding target for 2020.”
These latest orders by EPS continue to build the LNG-fuelled global fleet – DNV GL says about 10% of the total global orderbook is composed of newbuilds that will be powered by alternative fuels led primarily by LNG. There are currently 14 LNG dual-fuel container ships in operation and another 39 on order or under construction.
This order follows in the wake of a US$1Bn shipbuilding contract placed with DSME for six 23,500-TEU dual-fuel LNG-powered ultra-large container ship (ULCS) vessels. Hapag-Lloyd plans to deploy the new ULCSs on Europe–Asia routes as part of The Alliance, which includes liner companies Japan’s Ocean Network Express, China’s Yang Ming and South Korea’s Hyundai Merchant Marine. Those box ships will be delivered between April 2023 and December 2023.
HHI, which recently received the green light for its merger with DSME from Chinese regulators, closed out 2020 with a shipbuilding bonanza that spilled over into the new year. It secured US$4.27Bn in contracts, covering 34 ships from 3 December to 5 January, among which were 10 container ships.
World’s largest box ships with scrubbers
Among the non-LNG-fuelled tonnage ordered, are four container ships of a new class that will be the largest in the world and fitted with scrubbers.
Hudong-Zhonghua, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), will build the first ship in the new class of ULCS vessels, which will have a capacity for 24,100 boxes.
Each of the four box ships designed by Hudong-Zhonghua will be equipped with a hybrid exhaust gas cleaning system.
Hudong-Zhonghua said the contract is the concrete implementation of the strategic co-operation agreement signed between CSSC and Bank of Communications Co – the parent of Bank of Communications Financial Leasing – on 18 December. Bank of Communications Financial Leasing leases ships, airplanes, energy and other equipment.
“This type of ship adopts the world’s latest green, environmentally friendly, high-efficiency, energy-saving, safe and reliable design scheme. Its unique small bulbous bow, large-diameter propeller and energy-saving ducts make the ship’s fast performance and low energy consumption fully reflected,” said Hudong-Zhonghua in a press statement.
To address safety concerns regarding container fires, the new vessels will have a double-tower fixed water cannon fire extinguishing system.
At present, Hudong-Zhonghua has delivered more than 50 large container ships (with capacities of 8,000-TEU and above), including two of world’s first 23,000-TEU LNG dual-fuel-powered ULCS vessels.
New feeder vessel order
China has been busily ordering container feeder ships to boost its cabotage services from deep seaports. It has now been confirmed that Taicang Container Lines, which is part of Chinese state-owned Jiangsu Port Group, is behind an order at Tsuneishi (Zhoushan) for three 1,091-TEU feeder ships valued at US$20M apiece. With delivery scheduled for 2022, each of the feeder vessels will have a single, slow-speed B&W 6S50ME-C8.2 main engine, rated 6,775 kWh at 108 rpm, reported BRL.
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