Owners team up on new type from China

Auerbach Schiffahrt in Hamburg, founded in 2010, has joined forces with established Leer-based Briese Schiffahrt and Krey Schiffahrt. Together they have booked the ships of a newly developed E/F 12,500dwt type at two Chinese yards for quarterly delivery starting Q4 2015.

Alex Tebbe, Auerbach Co-MD, said: “our aim is to take into service the most efficient multi-purpose ships ever built”. He added they will consume over 25% less fuel than predecessors and save fuel costs of about US$3,000 a day.

Auerbach has ordered two of the ships at Jiangzhou Shipyard and secured two options. Briese has ordered two identical ships at the same yard while Krey has booked two at Jiangsu Hongqiang Shipyard. Auerbach said it had taken advantage of current low prices to order ships at $18.5 million which would normally cost up to $30 million.

Mr Tebbe told The Motorship there was no formal agreement between the three owners other than that all wanted to build the same type of ship. “So we decided to create a team to order all six, making the project easier to realise than if each individual owner had gone his own way”, he said.

Some German owners were quoted recently saying ordering in China might be false economy because German-built tonnage was of better quality, more economical and longer-lasting. Mr Tebbe said the issue was complex but that Auerbach had chosen an experienced yard and “there was no reason to rule out China on quality grounds”.

He also said many firms on the Makers’ List were European. The ships will have newly-developed MAN Diesel & Turbo five-cylinder engines “with ultra-long hubs”, Lindenburg auxiliary Diesels, two Liebherr cranes of up to 500 tons combined lift, 77m long hatches and an optimal hull which Futureship and Hamburg’s Ship Model Basin have helped design.