Two bulkers ordered by Campbell

These ships, which will be classed by ABS and fly the Bahamas flag, will be of 179.9m length oa, with a 30.4m beam, scantling draught of 10.2m and a service speed of 13.9 knots. Prime movers will be MAN B&W 5S50ME-9.2 diesels, compliant with IMO tier 2 compliant engines. The ships are being built to the ‘Seatransporter’ design developed by Nassau-based Algoship Designers, with basic, classification and production designs produced by Smart Engineering and Design Solutions. (SEDS), which has offices in Nassau, Bahamas and Kochi, India. Both companies are affiliates of GTR Campbell Marine Consultants (GTRC). GTRC will provide project management services in the shipyard, services which GTRC describes as “the unique ‘dream to delivery’ business model of turnkey shipbuilding” that it introduced almost 50 years ago. ABS and Algoship closely cooperated during the development of the Seatransporter design including detailed full ship FEM analysis. Extensive CFD, resistance, self propulsion, manouvering, seakeeping and cavitation tests were carried out at the Wageningen and Berlin facilities of Marin.

“We consider this an excellent fuel efficient futuristic design, complying with most up-to-date rules and regulations and meeting anticipated commercial requirements,” said Lowell Mortimer, chairman and CEO of Campbell Shipping, on behalf of the buyer. “The vessels represent what the maritime industry has come to expect from GTRC: a good ship at a fair price for both buyer and seller, built to high quality standards and delivered on time.” We currently operate several ships designed by Algoship including the Trader type 30,000dwt handysize bulk carriers designed by Algoship and built by Tsuji.

Algoship, GTRC and Tsuji have cooperated since the inception of shipbuilding at Tsuji Shipyard. The yard so far has delivered 14 Trader type vessels and has 10 more under various stages of construction. “When we were looking for the next design handysize bulk carriers we looked at several designs currently in the market including the Seatransporter design and found it to be an excellent fuel efficient, shipyard friendly design,” said Sunny Xu, commercial director of Tsuji shipyard. “We found GTRC to have an excellent knowledge of shipbuilding project management throughout the construction of the Trader series at a time our yard was being reorganised. Without their assistance it would have been impossible for us to deliver 12 ships of high quality within the contractual delivery dates during the difficult period. We have already received numerous enquiries for Seatransporter design which is recognition of another good design from Algoship and the high quality of Tsuji built ships. Together with GTRC and Algoship, we are sure that we can once again capture the attention of the world.”

“This contract is the first bright light in today’s otherwise dark newbuilding market” said GTRC president Antony Prince after the signing. “The timing is now ripe to select the best yards before the coming rush, to lock in the best prices and delivery schedules for 2012/13 and be ready to take advantage of an anticipated jump in charter rates.”

Unlike other ship sizes the handysize bulk carrier sector is considered to offer the best opportunity among all bulk carrier sizes due to advanced age profile of the existing fleet, relatively low order book, not so fuel efficient designs and booming economies in the developing world with poor port facilities.

For Prince, the contract marks another satisfying moment in the company’s history of groundbreaking projects. “Back in the early 1990s we brought a series ship order to Dalian, through which China really showed the world what it could do,” he said. “We were again the trend setters in India, bringing the first commercial business to Cochin Shipyard and showing the world the quality of work possible in India. Now, in China, we are very proud to again be opening the door on what promises to be a new era of prosperity in our industry.”

2011 marks the 100th birthday of George T R Campbell, the legendary ship designer who is the father of several successful ship designs and more than 400 ships to his credit. “It is a fitting tribute for us in the Campbell organisation to bring out industry’s most fuel efficient futuristic design to the market on George’s 100th birthday,” said Prince, who joined the organisation some 39 years ago as a junior engineer and worked 22 years with George.