Wärtsilä to supply solutions for six new Chinese container feeder ships

Technology group Wärtsilä will supply a range of products and solutions for six new 1160TEU container feeder vessels to be built at the Fujian Mawei shipyard in China. The project has been developed by MarLink Project Management in Germany together with various investors. This series of container ships has been designed by German design office ABH Ingenieur-Technik. There are options for a further six vessels. The full Wärtsilä scope for each vessel comprises the main propulsion unit featuring a controllable pitch (CP) propeller plant including the shafting arrangement with a step-up tunnel gear, the manoeuvring unit comprising a bow tunnel thruster with the electrical motor and variable frequency drive (VFD), a custom-designed shaft generator system, a hybrid exhaust gas cleaning system, ballast water management systems, a sewage treatment plant and the ship automation. The Wärtsilä equipment is scheduled for delivery to the yard commencing in the second half of 2017, and the first vessel is expected to be delivered in 2018. “These are modern vessels for which environmental sustainability is extremely important,” said Mathias Pahl, managing director, MarLink Project Management. “We believe the Wärtsilä solutions will enable the ships to operate cleanly and with a minimal impact on the environment, yet combined with economically outstanding operating parameters.”