[161212.EN.SEA] Shanghai To Build 4 Con-ro Ships With Stowage Design To Minimise Ballast

FOUR Atlantic Container Line (ACL) 3,800-TEU, 45,000-ton ro-ro/container vessels, or "con-ros", each with 28,900 square metres of ro-ro space are to be built in a Shanghai yard to replace five older ships plying the north Atlantic.

Key design features involve cutting the high ballast requirement of con-ro and ro-ro ships. Containers are stacked on the weather deck while ro-ro is stowed below. Because of vacant space on ro-ro areas, heavier cargo rides high in a conventional con-ro ships, necessitating a large amount of ballast water.

But a new Danish design calls for placing ro-ro amidships, and loading containers in cells fore and aft, resulting in better use of the hull and deploying cargo weight to minimise ballast water.

ACL's weekly fixed-day north Atlantic schedule connects Hamburg, Gothenburg, Antwerp and Liverpool with Halifax, New York, Baltimore and Norfolk. The new G4 ships may bring changes to the rotation, and options are under study to drop one or two ports and take in a southern US terminal.

To be built at Shanghai's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding yards, the G4 ships will be larger and slightly faster at 18 knots, yet more fuel efficient and more environmentally compliant than their G3 predecessors, reports Motor Ship of Fareham, near Portsmouth, England.

The new G4s will be 296 metres long and 37 metres abeam, compared to the narrower panamax gauge used for the older G3s, which are 292 metres long and 32 metres abeam.

The wider beam enhances stability as well as increasing cargo space, said the report. Hoistable ro-ro decks allow for 760 ro-ro units and 1,307 cars, and 3,800 TEU within a lattice of cell guides not only in the holds but also on deck, embracing a partial "open-top" layout.

Overall stack heights, from tanktop to uppermost tier on deck, will be greater on the G4s as will car deck headroom. The bridge and accommodation will stand amidships, rather than aft as on the G3s.

The G4s will supersede the G3s of five Swedish-flagged ships that have been in service since 1984 and 1985.

As with the G3s, a single, two-stroke engine, direct-drive propulsion system will be in the newbuilds. Motor Ship understands that the power may be in the order of 22,000kW, corresponding to about 29,500bhp. The main engine in each of the G3s is a B&W (now MAN) 6L90GBE six-cylinder diesel developing an MCR of 23,800bhp (some 17,750kW) at 97rpm.

Source : HKSG.