Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Shipping: CMA CGM's Containerships takes delivery of fourth LNG-fueled vessel

Despite their names these new ships are rated for Baltic ice not the thick stuff.
From LNG World News:
Containerships, a unit of the CMA CGM Group, has taken delivery of its fourth LNG-powered container vessel Containerships Arctic.

The company said that it took delivery of the vessel on December 10, 2019. This follows the introduction of its three sister ships – the Containerships Nord, Containerships Polar, and the Containerships Aurora.

After the vessels sets sail from Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard, the vessel’s first LNG bunkering will be carried out in Rotterdam. There, it will fuel an approximate of 200 metric tons of LNG via ship-to-ship bunkering....MORE
Previously:
January 4 
Shipping: CMA CGM Took Delivery Of Its First LNG Powered Vessel
June 21
CMA CGM's Containerships Welcomes Its Second LNG-Powered Newbuild
*****
...Though both World Maritime News and the press release mention the "high ice rating" that's high for the Baltic, not for the Arctic. The new ship is rated at the second highest level (1A) under the Finnish-Swedish ice class rules:
...Ships must fulfill certain design requirements in order to obtain the ice class from the Finnish and Swedish authorities. The design requirement for ice class 1A Super is a minimum speed of 5 knots in a broken brash ice channel with a thickness of 1.0 metre (3.3 ft) in the middle and a consolidated (refrozen) ice layer of 0.1 metres (3.9 in). Ice classes 1A, 1B and 1C have lower design requirements corresponding to non-consolidated ice channels with a thickness of 1.0, 0.8 and 0.6 metres (3.3, 2.6 and 2.0 ft) in the middle, respectively.... 
Wikipedia
The 1A level corresponds with the ARC4 level which the Russians will only allow along the Northern Sea Route during the summer, and a far cry from the icebreaking LNG carriers we've looked at. The  Yamal LNG project uses ARC7 rated vessels which the Russians allow to travel unescorted in ice up to 2.0 meters thick.

Still though the strengthening to 1A is a good thing.
This is the Brazilian research yacht Mar Sem Fim in Antarctica's Maxwell Bay:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHn0FUzQKvdScvdE-6hKboSASsGJqCxR0auaIrmnD-xudsC8_YRSMh7gZcEG6iM_CHw9Ykx1UvEeO1e47_7aU9egT6udJQ4UrTYhZp8-7LuqEEQGDAVzRfFvD3mzfZ8PLWSqjaROe-v80/s1600/30.jpg

It got caught in the ice and crushed by the pressure in 2012.