The Italian shipping specialist Grimaldi Group is expanding its owned fleet with five new car carrier vessels. The shipping company has signed an order for the construction of five new Pure Car Truck Carriers with the shipyard China Merchants Heavy Industries Jiangsu, company part of China Merchant Industry Holdings.
The Grimaldi Group said that the agreement, signed yesterday, foresees an option for additional five units, for a total investment of approximately 1 billion euro.
The five ships ordered are expected to be delivered between 2025 and the end of 2026, and the Group’s additional car carrier vessels are planned to be deployed on voyages between Europe, North Africa, and the Near and Far East.
The new vessels, with a loading capacity of over 9,000 CEU, have been designed to transport Electric Vehicles. They also received the Ammonia Ready class notation by Rina, which certifies that the ships have been designed and will be built to be converted at a later date to use ammonia as marine fuel.
As Grimaldi says, the vessels will be equipped with mega lithium batteries, as well as solar panels and shore connection, which will allow them to achieve the Zero Emission in Port. The other main technical innovations of these ships are the Air Lubrication system, an Innovative Propulsion and optimized hull design, which aim to reduce the carbon footprint.
As the Group´s Managing Director Emanuele Grimaldi says, “the potential dual-fuel vessels will be far more efficient than earlier designs as they will burn 50% less fuel than the previous generation of car carriers, adding that the order of a new type of vessel ammonia-ready, is a challenge, as he said, particularly when the alternative fuels for the industry to decarbonise are not available at the moment.
Source: Grimaldi Group
