Ten giant Vale ore carriers to be powered by Everllence ME-LGIM methanol engines

ME-LGIM engine

Ten 325,000 dwt VLOCs (Very Large Ore Carriers) being built for charter to Brazilian mining giant Vale will be powered by Everllence ME-LGIM engines.

The vessels are being built for Chinese shipping companies Shandong Shipping Corp. and Bohai Ocean Shipping Co Ltd. at Qingdao Beihai shipyard which has ordered ten Everllence B&W 7G80ME-LGIM (-Liquid Gas Injection Methanol) Mk 10.5 engines for the vessels. On delivery, the vessels will immediately go out on charter to Vale sailing from Brazil to China with cargoes of iron ore.

Each engine will come accompanied by an Everllence proprietary EGRTC (Exhaust Gas Recirculation – Turbocharger Cut-out) system for Tier III NOx compliance.

“Over the years we have experienced a wave of ME-LGIM orders and it is encouraging to see prominent players demonstrating their decarbonization credentials in taking these vessels on charter,” said Bjarne Foldager, head of two-stroke business at Everllence. “In a multi-fuel future, we expect methanol to figure prominently across all vessel segments and these newbuildings will be capable of trading carbon-neutrally when powered by green methanol.”

Christian Ludwig, head of sales and promotion at Everllence, said: “With more than 230 orders and over 600,000 running hours accumulated whilst running on methanol, the ME-LGIM engine has proven itself and become the de facto industry standard for the methanol propulsion of large merchant-marine vessels. As the engines are readily available and methanol dual-fuel types have a lower capital outlay compared to other, alternative fuel-propulsion solutions for ships, we fully expect to add even more orders within the bulk-carrier segment in the near future.”