The second of six environmentally-friendly cargo ships for a private Italian shipping company has slid down the slipway of top Nanjing shipbuilder, Jinling Shipping, a launch made possible by a giant Yangtze River dredging project.
Over the past 5-10 years, the Yangtze River has been deepened to enable 50,000 ton ships to dock in Nanjing. With the tide, that limit is 100,000 tons. The Eco Barcelona, at 64,000 gross tonnage, therefore needed the tide in her favour before slipping into the Yangtze last week.
After the launch, four high-horsepower tugs and one sea-patrol boat were needed to berth the ship successfully at Jinling Shipping’s outfitting dock, reported Eworldship.com.
The Eco Barcelona cargo carrier is a roll on, roll off, type of ferry, designed to carry lorry trailer loads, with a length of 238 metres and a beam of 34 metres. At 78,000 lane metres (156,000 square metres), the Eco Barcelona and her sisters are the biggest environmentally-friendly ships of their kind. Each shall be able to carry approximately 500 trailer loads of cargo.
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China Merchants Jinling Shipping (Nanjing) received the order from the Grimaldi Group in April of 2018 for the six vessels, representing a total investment of over US$400 million. The move is part of the Italian conglomerate’s upgrade and new-build program that will double the fleet’s efficiency.
Denmark-based naval architects, Knud E. Hansen, developed the “Grimaldi Green 5th Generation” (GG5G) design, in conjunction with Grimaldi, that would be applied by Jinling Shipping during construction.
Green Credentials for Biggest Eco Cargo Ships
The Eco Barcelona will use conventional fuel on the high seas, but will switch to electrical power when docked, thanks to lithium batteries that are recharged while at sea by the ship’s propulsion system and some 600 metres of solar panels.
Non-toxic silicon paints with low-surface roughness are also being employed on the cargo vessels’ hulls. These can reduce water friction and not release any pollutant into the sea.
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President of Grimaldi, Gianluca Grimaldi, was quoted by Lloyds Loading List as saying, “Reducing fuel consumption and, consequently, cutting harmful emissions are categorical imperatives for our group”. That saving in fuel is being enabled by an air lubrication system under the ship’s keel. By creating a layer of bubbles, friction and hydrodynamic resistance are reduced.
Grimaldi operates five main shipping lines. Three of the ships built by Jinling Shipping are destined for use by the group’s Malta Motorways of the Sea, serving destinations in the Mediterranean, while the remaining three shall be deployed in the Baltic by Finnlines.
With the remaining four ships all scheduled to be delivered this year, Jinling Shipping will be working flat out to make up for lost production time due to Covid-19.
