COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry joins hands with Anemoi

Top Chinese yard group COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Co (CHI) is now able to offer wind propulsion options after signing a landmark agreement with Anemoi Marine Technologies, a UK provider of rotor sails to the shipping industry.

CHI has nine yards capable of up to 7.5m dwt annual production across all major vessel segments and a significant global customer base.

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies can offer a turnkey installation solution to customers. Installation of Anemoi’s rotor sails will be available for newbuild vessels or retrofit during dry dock.

Rotor sails, also known as Flettner rotors, are an energy-saving technology. The mechanical sails are comprised of tall cylinders which, when driven to spin, harness the renewable power of the wind to provide auxiliary propulsion to vessels which reduces fuel consumption and lowers harmful emissions entering the atmosphere by 5-30%.

Wind-assist and primary wind propulsion have great potential when it comes to decarbonizing the shipping industry, especially in the context of the EEXI and CII regulations coming into force next year as they can help vessels reduce fuel consumption and improve their carbon footprint.

“This is another exciting landmark for Anemoi and will accelerate the take-up of our emission reduction technology. We are proud to have secured the commitment of a top Chinese yard group,” Nick Contopoulos, COO of Anemoi Marine Technologies, said.

“CHI shares our long-term vision of the role that wind-assisted technology can provide in delivering carbon reduction today. We are looking forward to a highly successful co-operation in the years to come and we are currently lining up the first installation opportunities with CHI.”

“As an integrated group of shipbuilding and marine engineering enterprises we are committed to supporting the shipping industry’s decarbonisation drive. Our pool of 3000 professional designers and 10,000 highly qualified technicians allows us to integrate the latest and most advanced solutions into the ships we build as well as retrofit in dry dock,” Guo ZhiQiang, Assistant general manager at CHQ of CHI said.

“We are delighted to be working with Anemoi Marine Technologies and have been impressed by their solution which can be combined with a range of other fuel saving measures.”

Anemoi already has over 170 staff at its production and assembly facilities in Jiangsu Province, China and is currently scaling up production capacity to meet the continued increase in demand.

The latest installations of wind propulsion technology on large commercial vessels have pushed the global cargo capacity of vessels that make use of wind as a renewable energy source over the one million tonnes of deadweight (dwt) milestone.

Currently, twenty-one large commercial vessels have wind propulsion systems installed onboard. By the end of this year, the International Windship Association (IWSA) estimates that wind propulsion technology will be installed on around twenty-five large commercial vessels, representing 1.2 million dwt.

The figure is somewhat lower than the projections estimated two years ago when 40 vessels with wind power were expected to be on the market by the end of 2022.

According to IWSA Secretary General Gavin Allwright the slower uptake of the technology can be ascribed to the pandemic which has delayed projects across the board amid logistical challenges as well as regulations delays in the EU and at the IMO level prolonging the uncertainty in the market.