Taiwanese shipping line Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. has signed a contract with a shipbuilding company for the construction of ten 2,800 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container vessels.
The contract was signed on August 15, 2018 between Yang Ming chairman Bronson Hsieh and the chairman of Taiwan shipbuilder CSBC Corporation, Cheng Wen-Lon.
The new ships will help to meet the future demand for medium- and long-term vessel deployments, and improve Yang Ming’s fleet competitiveness, the carrier said in a statement.
Yang Ming will take delivery of the vessels starting in the second quarter of 2020.
“In light of the rapid growth seen in the Asian emerging markets, the 2,800-TEU class containerships will be well suited for deployment in most of the major ports in the Asian region,” it futher said.
Meantime, Yang Ming will be taking delivery of five 14,000-TEU chartered vessels beginning in the fourth quarter of 2018 and throughout the first half of next year.
“These new containerships will update our fleet, and provide flexibility and broader service coverage for both long haul and regional services,” it stated.
They will also provide efficiency, energy savings, lowered unit costs, and optimized vessel efficiency.
With stricter International Maritime Organization marine environmental regulations coming into effect after 2020, Yang Ming said its new vessels will utilize the sword-type bow design in order to save fuel, reduce sulfur content, and benefit from the more efficient ballast water treatment system, the carrier said.
This type of vessel will employ the full spade rudder design, a significant upgrade from previous domestic designs, which provides advantages such as high rudder efficiency, energy savings, and reduced eddy current corrosion of the bow and aft.
The vessels will also be equipped with ABS NBL-grade fully auto-pilot navigation systems which will increase overall navigational safety. Additionally, the ships will have global satellite broadband and network layout capabilities needed in the future era of big ship data management.
Photo: Own work
