The Weekly Containershipping-Newsletter by Jan Svendsen and Jan Tiedemann. September 2006, 38 th week

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1 September 2006, 38 th week Hanjin HI Hands Over MSC Olga +++ Granville Bridge Enters Service +++ Jonni Ritscher Delivered as CMA CGM Caribbean +++ CSCL Pusan +++ New Ships Names Revealed at MSC +++ OOCL Europe on Her Maiden Voyage +++ Shanghai Chengxi on the Fast Lane +++ YM Unity Makes Her European Debut +++ Suez Groundings Delayed Container Ships +++ Maersk: E- Class Loop to be Revamped +++ E.R. Schiffahrt Signs Feeders Hanjin HI Hands Over MSC Olga Korean Hanjin HI concluded a quartet of 5,089 TEU ships for MSC with the delivery of MSC Olga. The vessel is another example of the yard s popular standard panamax type. The yard already built some 20 units of this type, mainly delivered to MSC and Maersk Line. Presently, the order book accounts for twelve more ships destines for Evergreen, Coscon and Maersk. Last week, MSC Olga was phased into MSC s Tiger service at Pusan. This sling connects China and South East Asia with Saudi Arabia and the eastern Med.

2 MSC Debra, a sister vessel of MSC Olga, is pictured here in the Hong Kong approaches. Photo: Jan Svendsen Granville Bridge Enters Service Recently, Hyundai HI completed the Granville Bridge and delivered the ship to Japanese K-Line. The 5,600 TEU vessel concludes a five ship series, branded as the G-class ships. The first ship of the type was handed over early this year. Granville Bridge will initially be employed in K-Lines service between the Far East and Northern Europe, She has already been phased into the JES, with Kobe as her first loading port. Possibly, Granville and her sisters will not remain on the European loop for long: Still this year, K-Line should receive the first of a series of much bigger ships. These might well be used to upgrade the Asia - Europe service. The JES s first European call is at Rotterdam (October 9 th ) from where the ship will sail to Hamburg (October 14 th ). Jonni Ritscher Delivered as CMA CGM Caribbean The 1,856 TEU Jonni [sic] Ritscher has recently been handed over from Hamburg-based J.J. Sietas shipyard specialists for the design and construction of feeder vessels and small container ships. The 177m-newbuild is managed by Transeste and will be employed in a charter with the French Line CMA CGM who name her CMA CGM Caribbean.

3 CSCL Pusan Seaspan Container Line, based in the Canadian city of Vancouver, have now taken delivery of their first 9,580 TEU containership. The company that does not operate any own liner services will receive a three more units of the same design. The new ship has been named CSCL Pusan and will be chartered out to China Shipping Container Line (CSCL) of Shanghai. Originally, Seaspan ordered eight 9,580 TEU ships, but sold four of them to CSCL, well before delivery. The lead ship in the series, Xin Los Angeles, was one of the units now owned and operated by China Shipping. CSCL very quickly introduced the new ship on their AEX 7 super loop, jointly operated with CMA CGM. With a width of 18 rows of containers, and a length of 336m, the type is the biggest presently build by Samsung HI. Of the four ships, CSCL is to employ in the AEX 7, two units will be managed by CSCL and two by Seaspan. At this point it is still unclear, where CSCL will employ the remaining four units to be delivered by Samsung. The ship expected calls in Northern Europe can be found in our overview in last week s newsletter. New Ship s Names Revealed at MSC About a year ago, The Mediterranean Shipping Company placed an order for a series of 5,762 TEU ships at Samsung HI. MSC signed six ships and booked five options in addition. So far, the company did not release any design details, but your editors believe the vessels might turn out rather similar to CMA CGM s 5,770 TEU Bellini-class of ships delivered from These ships are 280m long, 40m wide and draw 14.5m. Recently, MSC released the names of the first four ships to be delivered in the first half of The lead ship will turn out as MSC Fiametta, followed by MSC Krystal, Orians and Soroya. Since Samsung HI presently is ahead of schedule, the ships might even be delivered early. OOCL Europe on Her Maiden Voyage Last month, Orient Overseas Container Line has taken delivery of their eighth 8,068 TEU ship from Samsung HI. The OOCL

4 Europe is m long and 42.80m wide. Her B&W 12K98MCC Diesel produces some 68.5 MW and gives the ship a service speed of 25 knots. The ship is employed between Asia and Europe and premiered at Rotterdam and Hamburg last week. Next year, Samsung HI will conclude this series of ships with two more units. OOCL Europe arrives at Hamburg, bound for HHLA s container terminal at Altenwerder. Photo: Jan Tiedemann Shanghai Chengxi on the Fast Lane China s plans for building shipyard capacity are truly ambitious. However, its not only size and competitive prices that matter: Timely deliveries are of equal importance, since ships are often urgently needed from the day of handing over to the owners. Therefore, some shipping companies prefer to order from Japanese and South Korean yards, well known for their reliability in maintaining building schedules and delivery times. However, Chinese yards are catching up in this field, too. Recently, Shanghai Chengxi Shipyard s new shipbuilding facilities have proven their worth: The yard claims to have set the Chinese record for building a containership: The entire construction process from the laying of the keel to handing over the ship was completed in just 54 days six days less than the

5 previous record. The record ship was a 3,500 TEU carrier destined for German interests. Admittedly, South Korean Hyundai and Samsung HI manage to build bigger ships in about the same time. Nevertheless, the case of Shanghai Shipyard illustrates that the Chinese yards have taken a giant leap ahead: At the yard s old facilities the city of Shanghai will turn them into the venue for the next world fair a similarlysized vessel would have taken some 140 days to build. Presently, Shanghai shipyards order book includes 22 mid-sized boxships. Like some nice ship-photos? Visit our friends website: please note: this banner is not a commercial advertisement YM Unity Makes Her European Debut YM Unity, the first 8,200 TEU carrier of Yang Ming Line made its European Premier during the last week, with calls at Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp. The ship was built for Yang Ming by Hyundai HI and left on her maiden voyage from Kaohsiung to Europe on August 22 nd. YM Unity is presently the largest container carrier of the Taiwanese liner company. The new vessel is 335m long and 42.80m wide. It trades at a speed of up to 25.6 knots. 700 plugs provide electricity for reefer containers. Three sister vessels are under construction in Korea and expected to be delivered by January of The will all be deployed to the service between Asia and Europe. (Five similarly-sized ships to be build by Taiwan s China Shipbuilding will join Yang Ming s fleet from 2008.) In a press statement, Yang Ming revealed that the four ships will soon be joined on the European loop by four equally-sized units of a CYHKalliance partner. As we reported earlier, these ships will be provided by K-Line.

6 YM Unity on the river Elbe at Hamburg-Blankenese. Photo: Boris Paulien Suez Groundings Delayed Container Ships Containerships transiting the Suez Canal were slightly delayed by two accidents. At first, a dredger s sinking disrupted traffic in the Suez on Wednesday. The dredger sank early morning hours near al-ismailiya, north east of Cairo. A crew of 45 were on board the vessel named Khattab when the incident occurred. Sadly, two crew members drowned when the ship sank. Two missing crew are feared dead. The other sailors were all rescued. A Canal Authority spokesperson said a technical fault was the apparent cause of the sinking. Only a day later, traffic in the canal was disrupted again, when the 5,618 TEU Nedlloyd Tasman got stuck during a southbound passage. The Maersk Line ship was grounded for some hours on Thursday morning, but was pulled free by local tugs little later. Maersk Line stated that there were no leaks or structural damage caused. Accordingly, the ship was allowed to continue its voyage. In an interesting side note, the dredger s sinking on Wednesday prompted canal operators Leth Suez to re-route traffic through the canal s western approaches. Despite the fact that the western fairway only guarantees a depth of 13.40m, none of the containerships refused transit.

7 Maersk: E-Class Loop to be Revamped Now it s official: Eiving Kolding, Co-CEO of the Container Business of A.P. Møller, recently announced the Danish company would revamp their largest Asia-Europe loop in the near future. As soon as eight 13,500 TEU E-class vessels are available, a dedicated service will be introduced, tailor-made to fully exploit the behemoths potential. The new service shall be up and running by late The loop s port rotation has not yet been published, but the number of calls will surely be cut down compared to the present AE 1. The Scandinavian ports are candidates that might be dropped from the loop. Recent experience with Emma Maersk s calls in Northern Europe, showed that the new ships could be handled without any problems. Interestingly, the E-class ships seem to grow larger and larger: In a recent publication, AXS Liner again upped the estimate of the E-class ship s capacity to 14,878 TEU slots. Furthermore, information on some of the ship s propulsion features has become available: Additionally to the main engine - a Wärtsila 14RFlex96C from South Korean Doosan Engine Co Emma has been equipped with six MAK 643M generator sets rated at some 21MW output. For safety reasons, two groups of three generator sets are place two separate engine rooms. These auxiliaries do not only produce electricity for onboard consumption, but can also be used to drive the ship by means of two electric motors, fitted to the 120m propeller shaft. A waste heat recovery system which uses hot exhaust gasses to generate 8,5MW of electrical energy has been fitted, too. Like most passenger vessels, the E-class container carriers are fitted with retractable fin stabilisers. Manoeuvres in port are eased by four transverse thrusters: two each at the vessel s bow and stern. Each unit produces a thrust of 25 tons. A silicone-based under water coating reduces drag and will save up to 1,200 tons of bunker annually. The paint is expected to last much longer than conventional coatings: seven to ten years. According to Odense shipyard, the vessel s rather forward deckhouse position has not been chosen to insure sightlines when fully laden with boxes, but rather to strengthen the ultrawide hull and avoid distortion. Emma has a crew of only 13, but can accommodate 30, including pilots, guests or repair crews.

8 E.R. Schiffahrt Signs Feeders Hamburg-based ship investment group Nordcapital has reportedly ordered eight container feeder vessels at Mawei Shipyard in China. Hand in hand with its shipping affiliate, E.R. Schiffahrt, Nordcapital now ventures into the shortsea terrain. So far, both companies have been known for financing and operating large containerships chartered out to the big-names in the industry like Coscon or CGM CGM. The new vessels will cost an estimated USD 180 million. This price has however, not been confirmed by Nordcapital. According to press reports, the delivery schedule still depends on the availability of building slots for the ships main engines, which owners face difficulties acquiring. Most of the eight ships are likely to be completed during 2009 or maybe slightly earlier. Nordcapital had so far not signed any vessels at Mawei, but the yard is quite popular among German owners. *** This Newsletter is edited and compiled by Jan Svendsen and Jan Tiedemann. This pdf-file is available for download at and Feel free to contact the editors by at and We greatly appreciate your feedback and your input. More contact details can be obtained from the above websites. Please note the disclaimers displayed on the download pages. All information given in this newsletter is believed correct, but not guaranteed. For assistance with the present issue, the editors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Bert Vernimmen, Helge Barth and Klaus Masuch.