Japan’s K Line has joined the dash for LNG-fuelled pure car/truck carriers, snapping up eight 7,000-ceu newbuildings in a move to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
The shipping giant disclosed that it will take delivery of the octet between 2023 and 2025 to replace older vessels.
A spike in PCTC newbuilding investment has seen Eastern Pacific Shipping, Zodiac Maritime, Wallenius Marine, SAIC Anji Logistics and NYK Line join the order surge, with about $4.4bn-worth of deals done to date in 2021, according to VesselsValue.
“Following our first LNG-fuelled vessel — the 7,020-ceu Century Highway Green, which was delivered in March, K Line has made an agreement to order the new next generation of environmentally friendly car carriers,” said K Line.
Shipbuilding players said six of the PCTC newbuildings were ordered by the company while the remaining two new vessels were chartered in.
K Line has contracted China Merchants Jinling Shipyard and domestic shipbuilders Nihon Shipyard and Shin Kurushima Dockyard to construct two vessels each. It has not disclosed the cost.
SFL's Guangzhou newbuildings
Daniel Nash, VesselsValue head of ro-ro and vehicle carriers, said Japanese shipyards have priced an LNG dual-fuel 7,000-ceu ship at $100m while Chinese yards are quoting $88m for an equivalent vessel.
Shipbuilding players said K Line's other two newbuildings were chartered in from SFL, which ordered the LNG-fuelled 7,000-ceu PCTCs last month at China's Guangzhou Shipyard International for 2024 delivery. They added that K Line is taking the vessels for 10 years and the charters are estimated to be worth more than $200m in total.
K Line said the “next-generation of environmentally friendly” vessels are expected to reduce emissions of CO2 by 25% to 30%, emissions of SOx by almost 100%, and emissions of NOx by 80% to 90% with use of LNG fuel and exhaust gas recirculation, compared with conventional vessels using heavy fuel oil.
“In K Line Environmental Vision 2050, we have set the 2030 interim target of improving CO2 emission efficiency by 50% over 2008, surpassing the IMO target of 40% improvement,” said the company. “We are planning to substitute LNG fuel and other new fuels for conventional heavy fuel oil to achieve the targets set forth.”
K Line controls a fleet of close to 450 ships, of which 79 are car carriers. Eleven of the car carriers are deployed for shortsea trading and are operated by wholly-owned K Line European Sea Highway Services.
