New vessels for Rickmers and Evergreen
Rickmers christens four containerships with a combined capacity of 52,400 TEU; the Evergreen Group orders ten 8,000 TEU vessels. The Rickmers Group christened four ultra-large container ships (ULCS) – 13,100 TEU each – today at Hyundai Heavy Industries‘ Ulsan shipyard. Each of the four ships, Pearl Rickmers, Ruby Rickmers, Aqua Rickmers and Coconee Rickmers, has been chartered long-term to Maersk Line, and will join Maersk’s E-class as Maersk Edinburgh, Maersk Emden, Maersk Eindhoven and Maersk Essen. The ships will be delivered one by one during July and August 2010, and will be phased in to Maersk’s new joint service with CMA CGM that links Asia and North Europe. As Maersk’s AE8 service, it will deploy ten ships of this size, each partner contributing five. The port rotation will be: Ningbo > Shanghai > Yantian > Tanjung Pelepas > Port Kelang > Le Havre > Hamburg > Rotterdam > Zeebrugge > Port Kelang > Singapore > Ningbo. Another four sister ships are due for delivery to the Rickmers Group in 2011, also for charter to Maersk Line. All have been fixed for ten-year periods with further options. The first of these four vessels will be delivered in January, with the others following in February, May and July. Including the four 13,100 TEU ships christened today, Rickmers’s fleet now comprises 107 vessels. The Evergreen Group has placed orders with Samsung Heavy Industries ten 8,000 TEU L-class environmentally advanced container vessels. Six of the new vessels will be built for Evergreen Marine Corp and four for Evergreen International (Panama). The first vessel is due for delivery in 2012, and will join Evergreen Line’s global containership fleet. The new ships will be constructed under the innovative Greenship design concept developed by Evergreen Group Chairman Dr Chang Yung-Fa nearly ten years ago and first introduced in 2003. The highly developed features have been built into every Evergreen Line vessel since then. The L-type ships will enable Evergreen to meet the Group’s fleet reinforcement program, as well as provide replacement requirements. The ten ships are the beginning of a program of a new generation of container vessels that will be ordered by Evergreen Line from several shipbuilding yards in Asia. Details of the entire program will be announced as the company continues to negotiate both the price and the technological capability of the shipyards to meet the carrier’s strict standards of environmental protection and fuel conservation. Quelle: eyefortransport |
