Construction begins on new Crowley conro ships

VT Halter is building two LNG-powered box/ro-ro ships for the carrier’s Puerto Rico liner service.       Construction began Wednesday on the first of two new container/roll-on, roll-off ships being built for Crowley Maritime at the Pascagoula, Miss. shipyard of VT Halter Marine under a contract valued at about $350 million.
   The vessels, which will be employed in Crowley’s liner service between Jacksonville, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, will be powered with liquefied natural gas.
   Crowley said it is discussing terminal options with both the Jacksonville Port Authority and Puerto Rico Ports Authority.
   “These new ships will embody superior technology and construction and we are anxious to get them into service for our partners in Puerto Rico,” said John Hourihan, senior vice president and general manager of Crowley’s Puerto Rico/Caribbean liner services, in a statement.
   Crowley signed a contract to build the two ships with Halter last November. With steel-cutting on the first ship starting Wednesday, both vessels are expected to be delivered in 2017.
   The new ships are designed to maximize the carriage of 102-inch-wide containers, which offer the most cubic cargo capacity in the trade. The ships are 219.5 meters long, have beams of 32.3 meters, drafts of 10 meters and deadweight capacities of about 26,500 metric tons.
   Cargo capacity per vessel will be about 2,400 TEUs with additional space for nearly 400 vehicles.
   VT Halter is in the process of completing a new conro ship for Pasha for its service to Hawaii.
   Crowley’s competitor TOTE/Sea Star Line is also building two new containerships for the trade to Puerto Rico and is the subject of a story, “Head of the line” (pages 26-29), in the November issue of American Shipper.