On 1 February, the first 5,500 TEU container ship built by China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. for CMA CGM Group was named and delivered, and the ship was named “CMA CGM Sahara”.
“CMA CGM Sahara” is the first ship of ten 5,500 TEU container ships of CMA CGM constructed by Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding, which is a new generation of green, environmentally friendly and energy-saving medium-sized container ship independently developed and designed by Shanghai Ship Research and Design Institute (SDARI).
The 5,500 TEU container has an overall length of 255.5 metres, a beam of 40 metres, a depth of 22 metres, a structural draught of 14 metres and a deadweight of 72,962.9 tonnes. It has a carrying capacity of 5,544 TEUs and can be flexibly deployed in global shipping routes. Moreover, the ship is equipped with the latest nitrogen reduction equipment, which can fully meet the latest requirements of the IMO on nitrogen oxide emissions.
The ship is fitted with seven cargo holds, with a loading capacity of 5,598 TEUs, and can carry Euro containers on deck. Thanks to the well-designed hull line, high-efficiency propeller and full-suspension twisted rudder, the hydrodynamic performance is excellent, and the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) is lower than the baseline by 52.5 %, which is significantly better than the Phase III. The ship adopts SDARI’s unique low-wave drag-boosting S-BOW vertical bow, which takes into account the drag performance under different drafts, and optimises the hull line according to the shipowner’s expected operating conditions, so as to obtain the best overall performance.
Meanwhile, it adopts the new generation WinGD7X82-2.0 main engine, configured with SCR and AMP to reduce SOx and NOx emissions, which is the latest generation of green, energy-efficient and energy-saving medium-sized container ship. During the design process of the project, a number of patents have been formed by combining the characteristics of the ship type and the manufacturing process, which have been verified by the trial voyage, and the performance of each index is superior.