MAERSK BUILDS GREEN CONTAINER SHIPS
A completely new design will reduce the discharge of CO2 from the future container ships of Maersk Line by up to 22 per cent.
The new design will be tested on a series of 16 container ships that Maersk Line is building in South Korea. "We want A.P. Moller-Maersk to be leading in the development of a more environment friendly shipping. That is why we are seizing the moment, now that the Asian shipyards are in need of orders and therefore are willing to go far to fulfil the wishes of shipping companies, to put considerable focus on initiative, which can reduce fuel expenditure and thereby reduce CO2 discharge", says Bo Cerup-Simonsen, vice president of Maersk Maritime Techonology at A.P. Moller-Maersk's technical organisation, to business.dk
The additional cost of the new 16 ships is approx. 15 pct. more compared to a standard container ship of 7.450 TEU.
The 16 container ships, which from the beginning of 2010 will sail Maersk's container services South America - Europe and South America - Asia, make their fuel savings from a series of small initiatives on different parts of the ship.
For instance, the shape of the lower bulb will be changed. The diameter of the propellers will be increased, the hot exhaustion will be used for energy supplies and they will be painted with a special bottom paint, which gives less friction against the water. Combined it gives energy savings of up to 550.000 tonnes discharge of CO2 from the 16 ships combined - which is the same as the annual discharge of 195.000 households.
"With the new ships we take a long-termed approach to shipping. Even though we annually save up to $ 50 million worth of fuel on the new ships, the extra costs of constructing it will have a payment time span of 10 years. It is obviously longer than what you normally see in the business", says Bo Cerup.Simonsen to business.dk
The delivery of 16 new green ships is only the first steps of A.P. Moller-Maersk's attempts to make a more green profile. The company has already planned another new series' construction of 22 ships. In addition they are investigating how to make construction of four new tankers environment friendly.
"We consider a complete screening of our existing fleet of more than 300 ships, in which we will carefully examine which initiatives we can take to reduce fuel expenditure. It is however, still too early to say how large savings will come out of this", says Troels Posborg, project manager of Maersk Maritime Technology to the newspaper.
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