Ro-Ro-Autotransporter

摘要

German shipyard Detlef Hegemann Roland-werft, Berne-Warfleth, delivered the first car carrier within a series of four to German car forwarder and shipowner E.H. Harms on November 5,1998. The two first ships, one delivered now and the second to be put into service late in March 1999, are owned by E.H. Harms, whereas the third and fourth unit, to be delivered late in November 1999 and in March 2000, will be owned by Japanese partner company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha. The newbuildings are below 100 m long and they are ice-strengthened to be able to reach most European ports especially in Scandinavia. They transport up to 875 cars on eight decks with a lane length of 4,300 m. All decks and cargo holds have no pillars at all which allows optimal stowage flexibility. Compared with competing vessels the speed is optimised to an economical level of somewhere around 16 kn (competitor UECC sails with more than 20 kn). This moderate speed requires a main engine output of only 2 x 2,400 kW instead of 2 x 4,500/4,920 kW of UECC. Less power means less fuel consumption and E.H. Harms counts this as an advantage for the short and medium range of these car carriers which operate mainly as feeder vessels. UECC believes in high speeds as one of the benefits of their vessels, which were built in two versions by Frisian Shipyard in the Netherlands in 1994/97.