NovaAlgoma orders world’s largest (and maybe greenest) cement carrier
Written by Nick Blenkey
Photo: Nova Marine Carriers
NovaAlgoma has placed an order with China’s Ningbo Xinle Shipbuilding group for what, at 38,000 dwt, will be the world’s largest cement carrier. It will also be the world’s first methanol dual-fuel cement carrier.
NovaAlgoma is a joint venture between Canada’s Algoma Central Corporation and the Italian Swiss-based Nova Marine Group, whose chairman, Captain Giovanni Romeo, and COO, Salvatore Puglise, signed the order for the ship at a ceremony in Ningbo, China. The ship is expected to launch by the end of 2026 and is already committed on a long term contract with one of NovaAlgoma’s long-time customers.
While other vessels in the Nova fleet are already dual-fueled they use LNG. Methanol-dual fueling is just one of the newbuild ship’s green features. It will be equipped for cold-ironing to achieve zero emissions in ports and will feature hull air lubrication. What NovaAlgoma is hailing as “the true ground breaking solution” is a waste heat recovery system on the ship’s main and auxiliary engines hat recovered that will generate 250 kW of electricity using heat recovered from exhaust gases
“This highly valuable new entry implements the group’s fleet development strategy and is aimed to address the significant increase of cement demand we expect in the years to come,” said Vincenzo Romeo, CEO of Nova Marine Group. “For our group, it definitely represents a milestone, it is a tangible sign of our concrete and strong efforts towards a green fleet and makes ourselves proud of the adoption of such trailblazing solutions.
The vessel will have a crew of 21 will be RINA classed.
