Hanjin trio for Delmas

Delmas, the Le Havre based shipping line, will this month take delivery of the third in a three ship series of 1,641 TEU container ships. The ships, Elisa Delmas, Flora Delmas and the soon to be delivered Gaby Delmas, have all been built at Korea?s Hanjin Heavy Industries for operation on the Asia ? west Africa trades.

“The three ship series is a standard yard design, slightly adjusted to cope with Delmas particular needs,” explains Michel Malandain, newbuilding manager at Delmas. For example, the ships have been fitted with a fore echo sounder to minimise grounding risk in shallow African waters.

An important feature of the design, according to Malandain, is the ships? potential deadweight intake on their draught. They can load 19,250 dwt on a design draught of 8.75m and 20,950 dwt on a scantling draught of 9.2m. This, he explains, is important in ports such as Douala in Cameroon, which have low draught limitations.

“We are not (of course) designing the ships adjusted to the lowest draught on the route on which we are trading. Our interest is to be able to carry high cargo loads at low draughts,” explains Malandain. “This is mostly coming from appropriate hull forms.”

Other features vital for trade between Asia and Africa, where port infrastructure encountered regularly falls short of that expected in Europe and America, are the ability to self load and unload cargo and, to a lesser degree, the ability to take onboard some breakbulk cargo.

The ships are fitted with three electro-hydraulic cranes, which make them self-sustained vessels. An aft crane, behind the deckhouse superstructure, has an outreach of 23m. Two fore cranes each have an outreach of 28m. All the cranes have a 40t lift capacity.

Malandain explains that the ships are able to load some breakbulk in holds three to six (between the two forward cranes). These holds are fitted with stoppers above the second level in order to permit container overstow. This, says Malandain, enables stowage of a combination of containers and breakbulk cargoes in the same box-shaped hold. He points out, though, that the vessels are mainly intended as container vessels.

The ships can load up to 1,031 TEU on the hatches/on deck and up to 610 TEU in the eight holds (which are equipped with 40ft cell guides). They can take up to 196 45ft containers on the hatches/on deck and a maximum 138 TEU of 9ft 6in in the holds. Containers are stowed up to nine rows across and five high in the holds and up to 11 rows across and six high on the hatches/on deck. There are 200 reefer plugs, of which 24 are in the holds.

The cargo hatch covers are of a non-sequential, steel pontoon-type. They can accommodate up to 60t per 20ft container stack and up to 90t per 40ft container stack. In the holds the maximum stack weights are 120t per 20ft container stack and 150t per 40ft container stack. The double bottom scantling is 14t/m2.

Propulsion power for the ships is generated by a MAN B&W 7S60MC-C main engine. This is operated at 90% of its MCR of 15,810kW at 105 rev/min. This gives it a nominal continuous rating of 14,230kW at 101.4 rev/min. It drives a five-bladed fixed pitch propeller. A single 800kW bow thrusters is fitted.

Hanjin has, to date, built about 20 ships to this design.