JAPAN DELIVERS LARGEST-EVER REEFERSHIPS

The 22,450gt Cool Express, phased into service during November, and sister Cool Explorer, handed over at the end of February this year, are each attributed with a temperature-controlled capacity of 880,000ft3, the largest-ever in the specialised, or conventional, reefership sector. The project is all the more significant for the paucity of investment by the industry in such vessels over recent years, against the backcloth of the shift of the preponderance of reefer cargo to the containerised mode.

Constituting the most advanced development to date of the classical reefer concept, Cool Express and Cool Explorer are products of Shikoku Dockyard, the Japanese shipbuilder notable for the continuity it has maintained in reefership construction as part of a diversified newbuild output. Each of the exceptionally large duo offers the flexibility for up to 607 TEU, or up to 400 FEU, containers and provision for about 800 cars, traditionally a return cargo for reeferships.

The latest pair was preceded from Shikoku’s Takamatsu yard by the 650,000ft3 Cool Spirit and Baltic Spirit during the opening quarter of 2018.

The beneficial and contractual owner of Cool Express and Cool Explorer is Nissen Kaiun, one of Japan’s largest private, family-controlled tonnage owners. With interests spread across the shipping market, the Nissen business model is to order newbuilds primarily from compatriot shipbuilders, for long-term charter to established operators. As in the case of the new reefers, registered under the Panamanian flag with Southern Route Maritime, Nissen’s vessels are typically placed with Panama-incorporated entities.

Compartmentalised by a tweendeck configuration and served by deck cranes, the cargo spaces have been equipped for the transport of refrigerated goods at temperatures as low as minus 30degC. Weatherdeck-borne containers have the added security of a lattice of lashing bridges.

The primary power installation is a seven-cylinder model of MAN’s 600mm-bore two-stroke design, the G60ME-C9, supplied at its maximum, L1 continuous rating of 18,760kW at 97rpm. The diesel was manufactured at the Tamano factory of Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding.

So as to cater for the considerable electric load in a fully refrigerated ship of such high capacity, Cool Express has a five diesel generators affording a combined power concentration of 9,600kW.

At the time of writing, Cool Express was understood to be on passage from the Russian Baltic port of St Petersburg to Costa Rica, while Cool Explorer was reported to have sailed from Nakhodka in the Russian Far East for Ecuador. While Cool Carriers deploys capacity worldwide, shipments of fresh produce to St Petersburg from Latin America, South Africa and Morocco figure prominently in the activities of Baltic Reefers.

PRINCIPAL PARTICULARS—Cool Express