Canada’s Algoma Central Corp has returned to China’s Yangzijiang Shipbuilding to exercise an option for a further bulker newbuilding for its domestic fleet.
The Toronto-listed company said the latest order for a Seaway-Max self-unloading vessel would be based on an upgraded version of its Equinox design.
Construction of the ship will begin in late 2022 and the vessel is expected to join the fleet at the beginning of the 2024 navigation season.
“Triggering the option now enables Algoma to lock in a building slot with ideal delivery timing,” the shipowner said in a statement.
The new vessel is scheduled to replace the 34,066-dwt Algoma Transport (built 1979), one of the oldest vessels in the Algoma dry bulk fleet. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The new Equinox 2.0 design is said to build on the original Equinox Class standards to achieve better fuel efficiency, improved speed at lower engine power and enhanced deadweight capacity.
Design changes include various weight-saving innovations and a reconfigured stern that incorporates a dual-rudder design to increase cargo-hold size, resulting in an increase in the capacity of the vessel by about 1,440 tonnes.
Algoma said other design improvements include an efficiency upgrade to the propeller and changes in the shape of cargo holds to improve the handling of certain “sticky” cargoes.
“Our in-house design team is relentless in their pursuit of improvements in our vessel designs,” said Gregg Ruhl, president and chief executive of Algoma.
“Each previous Equinox Class ship incorporated modest improvements over its predecessors, as we learned more about the vessels during construction and as they entered operations.
“The changes made for this vessel were such an improvement over the previous design that we feel adding a version number to the design name makes sense.”
Algoma said the new Equinox 2.0 ship feature important sustainability advantages that will help it “meet its greenhouse gas targets, reducing the amount of emissions per cargo tonne-kilometre”.
The shipowner said it has invested over $50m in sustaining its dry bulk business since the launch of the Equinox Class fleet renewal plan in 2010.
Algoma owns and operates the largest fleet of dry and liquid bulk carriers operating on the Great Lakes St Lawrence Waterway, including self-unloading and gearless bulkers, cement carriers and product tankers.
