Ship lessor NSB has found a way to increase TEU capacity of its panamax vessels.
With the third set of locks in the
Panama Canal now expected to open in May, it’s uncertain what the
future holds for current panama-size containerships—vessels with
capacities between 4,000 and 5,100 TEUs that were designed to take
maximum advantage of the dimensions of the existing locks that have
been in use for more than a century.
Leaving just enough space around
ships so they have room to maneuver, the maximum length of ship
allowed to transit the canal will increase from 965 feet to 1,200
feet, and their beam from 106 feet to 160 feet. Draft will also be
increased in the canal from 42 to 60 feet. This means so-called
“neopanamax” ships carrying as many as 14,000 TEUs will be
accommodated by the expanded canal.
In October, Alphaliner noted there
were about 636 panamax ships with about 238 actually used on routes
passing through the Panama Canal. The firm predicted 50 panamax ships
would be idle by January and “the expected revamp of many Far
East-to-U.S. East Coast services will make life more difficult for
panamaxes.
“Despite the gloomy prospects for
panamax ships, the number of potential scrap candidates remains
limited. Only 28 panamaxes are older than 20 years and the average
age in this tonnage sector is as low as 10 years,” Alphaliner
observed.
Some of those panamax ships may
continue to transit the canal even after the new locks open or on
routes that don’t use the waterway.
However, Reederei NSB, a leading
containership lessor with 65 ships based in Buxtehude, Germany, has
found a way to modernize its panamax ships, which could be appealing
to other shipowners as well.
NSB has widened three of its
containerships at the Huarun Dadong Dockyard in Shanghai, increasing
their capacities by 30 percent from 4,872 TEUs to 6,336 TEUs. The
beamier ships are more stable, and need less ballast water. The
increased carrying capacity means daily fuel consumption is reduced
from 27.1 kilograms per TEU to 20.1 kilograms per TEU.
All three ships are chartered to
Mediterranean Shipping Co.
Work on the MSC Geneva was
completed on July 1, and on the MSC Lausanne on Oct. 25 last
year. The newly widened MSC Carouge was scheduled for redelivery to
NSB on Jan. 20.
The company’s NSB Marine Solutions
subsidiary is offering widening as a service to other shipowners and
managers and said demand for future widening projects has been
rising.
While many ships have been cut in
half and lengthened by inserting mid-bodies, “no one has ever cut a
containership longitudinally from the superstructure to the bow to
widen it. We are very proud of åour team who widened the MSC
Geneva and thus demonstrated the viability of our concept. The
ship will prove that it can keep up with the other carriers that ply
the world’s oceans,” said Tim Ponath, NSB’s chief operating
officer.
Depending on the ship, a widening
project can add up to four additional rows of containers.
DNV GL, the classification society
that worked on the widening, said other changes had to be made as
well: for example, anchoring equipment had to be modified as the
widened ships were heavier and offered more resistance to wind.
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Chris Dupin has written about trade and transportation and other business subjects for a variety of publications before joining American Shipper and Freightwaves.
