China, France To Build 9 LNG-run Containerships (with Updates)

Paris-based Bureau Veritas said November 8 it has been contracted to provide classification of French shipowner CMA CGM's nine new containerships, to be fuelled by LNG. 

Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore president Philippe Donche-Gay said it represented "a breakthrough order for gas-fuelled shipping – both in scale and in the use of a membrane containment system. Bureau Veritas has been supporting the project throughout, providing assistance to ensure the requirements for the safe use of LNG are addressed."
 
The new ships will each have a bunker capacity close to 18,000m3, representing "a significantly higher volume than has been required in the LNG fuelled ship market" to date. International classification agency Bureau Veritas investigated the feasibility of the design together with shipbuilder China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and GTT, the French containment system designer. Each of the containerships will be able to transport 22,000 TEUs, where TEU stands for 'twenty-foot equivalent unit', an inexact unit of cargo capacity.

Marseille-based CMA CGM announced November 7 it would equip its nine future ships, to be delivered in 2020, with engines using LNG. As such it says it is the first shipowner in the world to equip giant containerships with this type of ultra-low emission motorisation, It did not disclose the value of the giant order, which was placed in September and is being split between two Chinese shipyards: Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding. At that stage, the type of fuel was not officially disclosed.

In February, CMA CGM signed a memo of understanding to cooperate with Total, with the latter acting as bunker fuel supplier, including for LNG.

Fleets with smaller LNG-fuelled containerships already in operation include US shipowners TOTE Shipping and Crowley Maritime, plus Chinese-German GNS Shipping -- classed by either American Bureau of Shipping or DNV GL.

Croatian shipbuilder Brodosplit and Finnish owner Containerships are building similar vessels.

Update 12.30pm: The European Commission November 8 proposed new targets for the EU fleet-wide average CO₂ emissions of new passenger cars and vans that will apply from 2025 and 2030 respectively. It said that both for new cars and vans, the average CO2 emissions will have to be 30% lower in 2030, compared to 2021. The broad announcement does not go into specifics on alternative fuels, but France and other EU states have already outlined national plans that include more trucks to be fuelled on LNG or compressed natural gas.

Update November 13: Finnish shipowner Containerships said November 6 its first LNG-fuelled container vessel was completed two days earlier on November 4, when M/S Containerships Nord was launched at high tide at Wenchong Shipyard (part of CSSC) in China. It means that all four Containerships’ new-built LNG-fuelled vessels are now being produced. The Finnish company expects all four to be in operation later in 2018 in the Baltic and North Seas, with the first  expected to start sailing during 1H2018 depending of completion of sea trials.

Mark Smedley