On March 29th, Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje Shipyard held a christening ceremony for the 13,100 TEU Neo-Panamax container ship “WAN HAI A15” built for the Chinese Taiwanese shipping company Wan Hai Line.
The “WAN HAI A15” is the eighth in a series of 13 13,100 TEU container ships ordered by Wan Hai Line from Samsung Heavy Industries between 2021 and 2022, which will be put into service on Wan Hai Line’s Asia-North America East Coast route upon delivery.
It is understood that the series of container ships are 335 meters long, 51 meters wide, with a maximum draft of 16 meters and a design speed of up to 22 knots. The new container ships are equipped with nitrogen oxide reduction system (SCR), ballast water treatment system (BWTS) and various energy-saving devices and intelligent ship solutions SVESSEL. As an environmentally friendly smart ship, this series of container ships enables economical and safe operation, reduces resistance during navigation, as well as saves energy and reduces fuel.
Currently, Wan Hai Line is continuously upgrading its fleet to improve operational efficiency. The shipping company plans to gradually increase the number of 13,000 TEU container ships in order to improve the competitiveness of its long-haul services and strengthen its operational capabilities.
In addition to large container ships, a naming ceremony was held last week (March 26) for three environmentally friendly 3,055 TEU container ships, WAN HAI 370, WAN HAI 371 and WAN HAI 373, which are being built for Wan Hai Line by the TSU Shipyard of Japan Shipbuilding Union (JMU). There are a total of 12 container ships in the series, and this naming is for the 6th, 7th and 9th container ships in the series.
According to Wanhai Line, the 3,055TEU series of container ships use low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO), emphasize on energy efficiency and environmental performance, and are equipped with new energy-saving equipment such as fully balanced twisted spherical rudders, and pre-cyclonic devices before propellers, which can effectively reduce resistance and achieve energy-saving effect. They are all certified as “Smart Ship” and installed with Intelligent Ship System and various monitoring and communication equipments, which collects all-round data of ship navigation and equipment operation, and helps to strengthen the safety management of the fleet.
Currently, Wanhai Line has set a clear emission reduction target, committing to reduce the carbon intensity of its fleet by 50% by 2030 compared to the base year (2008). In addition, since 2022, Wan Hai Line has obtained the dual certification of GHG Inventory and GHG Protocol, and the CO2 emission intensity of its fleet has been reduced by 5.2% compared to the previous year, and by about 34% compared to 2008.