Containership owner and lessor Seaspan Corporation has partnered with Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world’s largest container shipping lines, to retrofit five existing ships to methanol fuel.
Hapag-Lloyd is a major charterer of Seaspan-owned ships.
The five 10,000 TEU containerships, currently powered by conventional S90 engines, will be retrofitted to dual-fuel engines. After the retrofit, they will be chartered to Hapag-Lloyd on a long-term basis.
MAN Energy Solutions is set to perform the retrofits. Each conversion could result in a CO2 reduction of 50,000 to 70,000 tonnes annually when operating on green methanol.
Today’s announcement follows an agreement between Hapag-Lloyd and Seaspan announced last July to retrofit 15 individual MAN B&W S90-type fuel-oil-powered engines to dual-fuel ME-LGIM engines capable of running on green methanol. The agreement includes an option for 45 more engine retrofits.
Seaspan said the retrofitting constitutes “a necessary and major component of emissions abatement” and is “an effective way to extend the operational lifetime of the existing fleet while delivering fuel flexibility to customers.”
“Retrofitting existing vessels is a critical lever in global decarbonization efforts. Not only do we transition to greener fuels, but we save the additional resources needed to build new vessels,” said Torsten Holst Pedersen, Chief Operating Officer of Seaspan. “This agreement is another testament to Seaspan’s commitment to identifying creative solutions with our partners and to ensure we optimize our existing active vessels while we continue to expand our fleet for the future.”
The vessels due for retrofits are the Seaspan Amazon, Seaspan Ganges, Seaspan Thames, Seaspan Yangtze, and Seaspan Zambezi.
As of the end of 2023, Seaspan’s operating fleet comprised 153 vessels, with 36 more under construction, scheduled for delivery by December 2024. This will increase the total fleet capacity to approximately 1.9 million TEU.
source: CSN
