VANCOUVER-based Methanex has announced it will be chartering in four new vessels to be built for its shipping arm, Waterfront Shipping. The 49,000 dwt vessels have been ordered by IINO Kaiun Kaisha, Mitsui, NYK Group and Swedish tonnage owner Marinvest. They will be powered by Man Diesel dual-fuel engines just as the company’s most recent vessels are.
In 2016 Waterfront Shipping took delivery of the first ever vessels capable of being powered by methanol. They are powered by the first MAN Diesel two-stroke engines that can use methanol and other new and alternative fuel types.
These vessels were ordered by Marinvest and Mitsui, as well as Norwegian owner Westfal-Larsen.
In a joint press statement from the companies involved in the deal, Man Diesel promotion manager René Sejer Laursen said the price of the engine has dropped considerably since its introduction in 2016.
“Allied with its environmental credentials and convenience of use when employing methanol as a fuel, we are confident the ME-LGI will continue its promising progress,” he is quoted as saying.
For Waterfront Shipping these four new vessels will mean that 40% of its fleet will be methanol-fueled, which given the emission control areas and the 2020 sulphur in fuel regulation change will be beneficial. Methanex’s tanker fleet distributes the company’s cargoes around the world.
Methanol, like liquid natural gas, has virtually no sulphur content making it a suitable fuel for operations in emission control areas as well as worldwide.
Waterfront Shipping said the four new vessels will be built in Korea at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, where some of the first generation of methanol-fueled vessels were built. Two of the vessels will be owned in a joint venture between WFS and Marinvest, one will be owned by NYK and the fourth will be owned in a joint venture between IINO and Mitsui.
Fathom-News.com
