Wärtsilä RT-flex engines to power “Bangkok-max” containerships

Wärtsilä is to supply the main engines for the first series of eight “Bangkok-max” containerships being built at the Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard in Chinal. The ships will serve as feeder vessels in Asian waters.

Wärtsilä received the order in June. The scope of supply includes eight Wärtsilä RT-flex60C main engines, which will be built by a Wärtsilä licensee, Hudong Heavy Machinery (HHM), based in Shanghai.

In meeting the needs of the new Bangkok-max container vessel design, the Wärtsilä RT-flex engine technology offers excellent fuel consumption, exceptional reliability, and the possibility to incorporate environmental upgrades at a later date. The compact size of the engine is ideal for the narrow engine room that the vessel design calls for.

“We are proud to set the standard for these Bangkok-max design container vessel engines. The benefits of the Wärtsilä RT-flex engines are well known to the Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard, and they are clearly the right solution for this design. We very much appreciate the excellent co-operation with our licensee HHM and their having secured this valuable order,” says Lars Anderson, Vice President, Merchant, Wärtsilä Ship Power.

Four of the ships are being built for Buss Shipping, part of Buss Group from Hamburg, which is well known for its port operations in Northern Europe and for its container financing by Buss Capital. The other four ships are for Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Limited, a ship management company with its head offices in Athens, Greece.

The machinery for the first of these 1,700 TEU container vessels is scheduled to be delivered in 2012, with the remainder being delivered at regular intervals thereafter.

“We selected the electronically controlled Wärtsilä engine because the flexibility in the matching of the engines’ specific consumption with the vessels demands was very important to us. Thanks to the optimized specific consumption, we are able to offer an environmental friendly, low fuel consuming vessel, which gives also many benefits to charterers,” says Carsten Meyer, Fleet Manager of Reederei Gebrüder Winter, the technical advisor for Buss Shipping in this project.

“Electronic engines have been selected by our company in order to better meet the environmental requirements with high flexibility and efficiency throughout the entire engine load range and vessel speed,” says Stefanos Tsonakis, Technical Manager, Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Ltd.

HHM has been a Wärtsilä licensee since 1995. It is a member of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and is the largest engine manufacturer in China, focusing on engines with bore sizes between 48 cm and 70 cm.

August 8, 2011