NYK Line receives 1st LNG-powered car carrier from China Merchants

China Merchants Jinling Shipyard (Nanjing) Co. has delivered the first of four LNG-fuelled pure car truck carriers (PCTC) to Japanese shipping major NYK Line.

The 7,000-CEU car carrier Jasmine Leader was ordered back in 2021, and it is expected to be assigned for transportation of vehicles between Europe and the Middle East.

The ship, like its sister vessels, is equipped with battery hybrid technology, aimed at improving fuel efficiency by mitigating main engine and electrical generator load fluctuations through the support of batteries.

The vessel is fitted with Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD) 7X62DF2.1 low-pressure dual-fuel engines by CSSC-MES Diesel (CMD). The engine includes iCER (Intelligent Control by Exhaust Recycling). This means that the engine consumes less gas and reduces GHG by cutting methane emissions from the exhaust gas by approximately 50%.

Vessel specifications:

Length overall: about 199.90 meters
Breadth: about 38.00 meters
Total car capacity: 7,000 units
Gross tonnage: 72,800 tons

The use of LNG fuel combined with other energy-efficiency solutions such as hull modification is expected to contribute to a reduction of sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions by 99% compared to ships fueled by heavy fuel oil. Likewise, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions are set to be cut by 96%, and CO2 emissions by approximately 40% or more (per unit of transportation), according to NYK Line.

The construction of these four vessels is in line with NYK Line’s plan to replace current vessels with around 40 newly built LNG-fueled PCTCs over the next decade to reduce CO2 emissions per ton-kilometer of transport by 50% by 2050. NYK Line aims to move from LNG as a transition fuel to utilizing low-emission marine fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia from around the mid-2030s.