Japan: Imabari Secures Order for Newly Developed Shallow Draft Bulk Carrier

Imabari Shipbuilding Co., in its 100 years old history has built nearly 2,000 newbuilding vessels and has satisfied customers’ needs by developing many kind of vessels for varied purpose and size.

Due to the historic hike of fuel oil price, less fuel consumption is required and less environmental burden is also important social issue, Imabari Shipbuilding has developed a shallow draft and wide beam general purpose bulk carrier with significantly improved fuel oil consumption and this month just completed shipbuilding contract for two (2) vessels.

The company developed shallow draft and wide beam bulk carrier with 229m LOA, 35m beam, and capable of 80,000m.t. deadweight at about 13.9m(45.6feet) draft.

By widening the beam, cargo hold capacity has been increased, capable of carrying a large quantity of grain cargo at shallow draft, transporting more cargo to more ports. And by widening the cargo hatch width, cargo handling efficiency has also improved.

The vessel is designed to flexibly satisfy various kind of cargo requirement, having 84.000 of DWT at full laden draft, suitable to carry not only light cargo such as grain, but also coal, and also alternative loading of iron-ore.

In spite of increased size and deadweight, the vessel has achieved superior performance in fuel oil consumption, namely about 28ton/day at 14.5knots service speed. Various sort of energy saving technologies have been applied including “Hybrid Fin” which is Imabari’s own technology enabling better propulsion efficiency.

The vessel has highly environment friendly design. The effect of such energy saving in terms of CO2 emission is equivalent to about 1,800 ton reduction per year (about 7% reduction) compared with conventional panamax bulk carrier. The vessel’s EEDI is about 25% below the reference line, satisfying phase II restrictions which is to be applied to the vessels to be delivered from the year 2020.

The first vessel is scheduled to be delivered in autumn 2014, when the new Panama canal passage will become possible, and operational general versatility will further be widened.

Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. has post panamax line-up including 95,000 DWT Type “IS NEXTER”, 88,000 DWT Type Coal Carrier, and this time, newly designed 80,000 DWT shallow draft type is added to the menu. The company believes that new line-up would provide more flexibility to its customers’ purpose and needs.

[mappress]
Source: imazo, March 22, 2012