Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2011)

8 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

NEWS VESSEL OF THE MONTH

Maersk Line has ordered 10 of the record breaking 18,000 TEU container ships from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Ma- rine Engineering Co., Ltd., Korea for de- livery 2013 to 2015.There is an option for an additional 20 vessels.

Ships of this size, sometimes referred to as “Malaccamax” have been talked about for more than 10 years and rumors of the Maersk order have abounded in re- cent months. Malaccamax refers to the largest ships able to negotiate the Straits of Malacca. Reduced draft was one of several reasons to adopt a twin island de- sign with twin engines powering two smaller diameter propellers rather than one large one (requiring greater depth of water).

This new, giant container vessel class will be known as Triple-E, based on the three main purposes for their creation:

Economy of scale, Energy efficiency, En- vironmentally improved. The new class will have 16 percent more capacity than

Maersk’s present largest Emma Maersk ‘PS Class’ ships. Contributing to the larger container capacity is positioning the engines further aft rather than mid- ships. The dimensions of the new Class is 1312 x 193.5 x 239.5 ft. (400 x 59 x 73 m).

The Triple-E Class design reduces CO2 emissions and features Waste Heat Re- covery equipment that will produce 20 percent less CO2 per container moved compared to Emma Maersk and 50 per- cent less than the industry average on the

Asia-Europe trade lane.

Compared to the present largest con- tainer ships of around 13,000TEU, the

Triple-E Class will offer a fuel saving of approximately 35 percent per container.

Although the maximum speed will be 25 knots, the hull and propulsion systems are designed to profit from slow steam- ing, rendering fuel consumption benefits of 20 percent at 22.5 knots, 37 percent at 20 knots and 50 percent at 17.5 knots.

Propulsion Details of Triple-E Class

The Maersk Triple-E will be the world’s largest container vessel class yet the propulsion system is remarkable for its relatively small size and high effi- ciency. Contrary to postulations in earlier studies for this size of vessel, it does not

Maersk Makes its Mark (again)

Meet the 18,000 TEU Containership (Image Cour tesy MaerskGr oup)

Hallmarks of the “Triple E” Class

Economy of scale, Energy efficiency,

Environmentally improved (Image Cour tesy MaerskGr oup) (Image Cour tesy MaerskGr oup)