Green vessel for Irish Sea services

The new class of environmentally-friendly vessels will be built to DNV GL standards and fitted with state-of-the-art features to comply with Emission Control Area (ECA) requirements.

They have been developed with ARKON Shipping as project initiator/commercial manager, technical managers Jüngerhans Maritime Services, and designers CIMC ORIC.

Koert Luitwieler, shipping director at BG Freight Line, said: “As well as helping us, and our customers, to reduce their carbon emissions and costs, these custom vessels have a number of innovations to help keep us at the forefront of feeder services in the Irish Sea. We are looking forward to seeing them in service very soon.”

In order to fulfil the requirements for trading within the ECA area, they will be fitted with a modern wet scrubber system for exhaust cleaning.

The vessels are also fully fitted for the loading of 45ft short-sea containers in all positions, with room in total for 488 units.

To minimise operational cost the vessel will have a modern two-stroke main engine with very low fuel consumption.

BG Freight Line will take delivery of four sister vessels under long-term charter after delivery from Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard, with them expected to enter service during 2018.

All parameters of the vessels have been optimised for the trade between the North Continent, Ireland and the UK.

“We are proud to have developed and managed this project under the current difficult shipping market conditions,” said Ole Gabs, director of ARKON Shipping.

He added: “We believe that the future for vessel design and construction is to have close partnerships between owners and charterers, especially where there is as ambition to meet the highest environmental standards.”