New ships for Far East round trip

Hamburg-based Rickmers Line has moved a step closer to realising its round-the-world service ambitions with the christening of Rickmers Shanghai, the fourth newbuilding in a $270 million series of nine vessels it will be taking on this year from China.

The first ship, Rickmers Hamburg, was christened in Hamburg on its first visit to Europe, having sailed from Shanghai via Masan (South Korea) and Hitachi (Japan) to the East Coast of North America before returning to the Far East and then to Europe, again by way of the US.

She was followed by the Rickmers Tokyo and Rickmers Singapore. The remaining five vessels are scheduled for completion this year.

The ships are being built at Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing, which is building two; Xiamen is building five, and the other two will come from Shanghai Shipyard.

The vessels had already been introduced to the public under the designation “Superflex Heavy-Lift Multi-Purpose Container Vessels 1800” (see The Motor Ship, January 2002, page 28). Initially the Schoeller company had ordered 18 vessels of that type in China. Nine of this order series were passed on to Rickmers. The basic design was retained, but all the Rickmers vessels will be equipped with very heavy cargo-handling gear.

The vessels have an overall length of 192.9 metres, a moulded breadth of 27.8 metres and a moulded depth of 15.5 metres. With a design drought of 10.0 metres the deadweight is 24,250 tonnes and with a scantling draught of 11.2 metres (ssw) that rises to 30,000 tonnes. The total loading capacity is 35,900m3. Equipped with a seven-cylinder two-stroke low-speed MAN B&W S60 MC with an output of 15,785 kW at 105rpm (daily fuel consumption 58 tonnes heavy fuel oil), the service speed of the vessels is 18 knots, maximum speed

21 knots.

There is a shaft generator to supply the board mains, and three MAN B&W generating sets, one driven by a 6-cylinder engine with an output of 975 kW, and the other two by 7-cylinder engines with an output of 1,135 kW each. Total generator output was divulged by Rickmers, but electric power demands are clearly high at sea or in port, to service loading and unloading with the two 320 tonnes cranes and running all dehumidifying systems.

There are five holds with hatch openings of 32.0 x 10.3 metres and a specific floor load of 23 t/m3 and a container capacity for 1,888 TEU. The free deck area for large cargo is 90 x 25 metres.

To make the vessels independent of port handling equipment, they have four cranes, two on port with a hoisting capacity of 320 tonnes each, which may be used in combination, using a cross-beam, to place cargo up to 640 tonnes on board. Their outreach is 16 metres. The other two cranes have a capacity of 100 tonnes with an outreach of 22 metres respectively 45 tonnes with 27 metres. To protect iron and steel cargo in all holds there is a de-humidifying plant. In all holds the tween-decks are adjustable in three different heights up to a maximum of 15.77 metres.

These new ships place the company at the beginning of a new era, said Bertram RC Rickmers at the christening of Rickmers Hamburg. With the complete fleet of nine vessels he intends to launch what he calls the “pearl string round-the-world service”. This service will connect the major markets in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Rickmers will guarantee regular two-week departures from certain ports around the world. Thus every vessel of the fleet has to round the world within 126 days, calling at 20 ports and having 12 days in reserve to call, if requested, at additional ports which are not regularly served. The total number of ports which the Rickmers vessels will call at is in the order of 40, with Hamburg, Antwerp and Genoa as base ports in Europe and Jakarta, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xingang, Masan and Yokohama in Asia. The base ports in North America will be Houston, New Orleans, Newport News and Halifax

The service will be focused on handling heavy cargo, general cargo and containers, with heavy goods having first priority. According to Rickmers, this service is directly connected to the increasing demand for capital goods in China. Sailing to the Far East, especially to China, has a long been a tradition for Rickmers.