Monday, December 9, 2019

Norwegian Accrediting Behemoth DNV GL Grants Approval-in-Principal for 25,000 TEU LNG-Powered Container Ship (New Record If Built)

There is no order for the ship and as far as I can remember the only line expressing interest in something so big at this time was China's COSCO.

Maersk has been dead set against raising capacity in an iffy rate environment and a few years ago made an interesting argument that shippers in Shanghai would rather have four or five departures per week, even if slightly more expensive per TEU than have their chosen carrier only make two or three departures at lower per-TEU cost. Whether that is still true I know not.

From World Maritime News

25,000 TEU LNG-Fuelled Boxship Design Secures AIP
This year’s Marintec in China seems to be pushing the industry limits, with numerous breakthrough announcements and records being unveiled.
The latest one includes the potential construction of what would be the world’s largest containership, boasting 25,000 TEU.

Namely, DNV GL said on Wednesday that it had awarded Chinese shipbuilder Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding an Approval in Principle for a 25,000 TEU LNG-fuelled containership.
Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO DNV GL – Maritime, handed the AIP certificate to Chen Jun, President of Hudong-Zhonghua at Marintec 2019.

LNG-fuelled design concepts have been under the spotlight at the show, as natural gases as fuels take up a greater role in decarbonizing the global fleet of the future.

The classification societies have been busy developing numerous projects with the Chinese yards announcing approvals for ammonia-fuelled ships and LPG class notations to help spur the efforts to design and build zero-emission ships....MORE
And speaking of behemoths, of equal interest is a point made by gCaptain, the awardee, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding is part of  China State Shipbuilding Corporation which, after its merger with China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation will create the world's largest shipbuilder, with trailing revenues of $141.5 billion.
I don't care who you are, or what you're doing, that's big.

Previously on the next wave, so to speak, of big boats:
As The World's Largest Container Ship Completes Its Maiden Voyage from China to Europe, A Call For Even Bigger Behemoths

And from the journal Maritime Economics & Logistics:
First Online: 15 November 2019
Towards 25,000 TEU vessels? A comparative economic analysis of ultra-large containership sizes under different market and operational conditions

The next concept being kicked around is articulating ships with one idea being two self powered sections that could load in two separate ports, say Hong Kong and Shanghai, and come together to make their journey en train.

See December 2017's Maritime Executive:
An Articulating Hinge for a 50,000-TEU Container Ship