Japan’s Tsuneishi Shipbuilding has bagged an order for four methanol dual-fuelled midsize container ship newbuildings.
The Hiroshima-headquartered shipyard did not disclose the identity of the buyer, but said the 5,900-teu newbuildings will be the largest boxships it has built.
The contract is Tsuneishi’s third order for methanol-fuelled vessels, following kamsarmax and ultramax bulker deals with J Lauritzen and Kambara Kisen respectively.
Tsuneishi, which has two overseas shipyards, Tsuneishi Cebu in the Philippines and Tsuneishi Zhoushan in China, did not disclose the delivery dates of the boxships or where they will be built.
Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network shows Tsuneishi Zhoushan is so far the only one of the yards that has container ship newbuildings on its orderbook.
Tsuneishi said the 5,900-teu vessels will have a Mitsui-MAN B&W dual-fuel methanol and heavy oil engine will be manufactured by Mitsui E&S.
These will be the first newbuildings in Japan to have the engine installed, it said. “The 5,900-teu container carrier is the largest container carrier to be built by Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Group.”
The vessels will be able to load up to 5,915 20-feu containers in the hold and on deck, and up to 1,400 reefer containers.
The shipbuilder claimed that the improved hull form, paired with fuel-efficiency technologies, will improve propulsion efficiency by about 4%, and “the adoption of a large-capacity shaft generator has enabled this … vessel to achieve both top-class loading performance and excellent fuel economy compared with fuel oil vessels in the same segment”.
Tsuneishi said that besides the main engine, all onboard generators can be methanol-fuelled, making it possible to achieve carbon neutrality, with the exception of a small amount of pilot fuel.
“In addition, the vessel has the equipment to receive a large capacity of alternative maritime power supply and zero CO2 emissions can be achieved by shutting down the generators while anchoring,” it said.
