On December 18th, China State Shipbuilding Corporation Beihai Shipbuilding (Beihai Shipbuilding) held a steel cutting ceremony for the 100th ship “Dortmund Express” wind shield project for Hapag-Lloyd.
It is reported that this project is the 100th ship repaired and remodeled by Beihai Shipbuilding for Hapag-Lloyd, and the Dortmund Express will be fitted with a new bulbous bow and a wind shield. This is the first time that Hapag-Lloyd has installed a wind shield on an existing large container ship. The company previously revealed that a new container ship built by a Korean shipyard will also be equipped with a wind shield.
Beihai Shipbuilding is the general contractor for the one-stop services including detailed design, production design, fabrication, installation and final testing of the wind shield.
The design of the wind shield adopts the DNV optimized line shape, which minimizes the wind resistance of the ship’s navigation on the basis of minimum weight. According to the design parameters, the wind shield can save one ton of fuel per day for ship navigation, which is equivalent to reducing 3.1 tons of CO2 emissions per day.
With a capacity of 13,759 TEU, the Dortmund Express has a length of 366 meters and a beam of 48 meters. It will be refitted in late January 2025 at the shipyard.
Wind shields have been proven to improve aerodynamics and save fuel, and are now becoming increasingly popular on container ships. Liner giants such as Ocean Network Shipping (ONE), CMA CGM and Mediterranean Shipping (MSC) have all applied bow wind shields on their container ships.