HGK Shipping names future-fuel-ready dry goods inland waterway vessel

Inland waterway shipping company HGK Shipping has hosted a naming ceremony for its newbuild dry goods vessel with future-fuel-ready capability and what is said to be the world’s largest solar module structure on board an inland waterway vessel.

The vessel was named Helios at a ceremony held in Düsseldorf on June 20.

Helios will be operated by HGK Shipping and sail for ADM, a food and agricultural group. The 135-meter-long vessel will mainly transport rape oilseed to ADM business sites in Germany.

The vessel’s design, which is optimized for shallow waters, incorporates a diesel-electric drive system with a future-fuel-ready option as well as solar panels installed on board.

The module, which has been inserted to make use of solar power and is larger than any other one found on an inland waterway vessel anywhere in the world, reduces the emissions significantly on the vessel that has been designed precisely for this purpose, HGK Shipping explained.

The solar panels, which are inserted on the vessel’s hatches and can generate up to 90 megawatt hours of electricity, are expected to enable the vessel to act as its own power station for onboard operations, saving up to 70 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

HGK Shipping added that the diesel-electric drive system also minimizes the emissions of greenhouse gases and makes the vessel an important element for “greener” supply chains.

“It’s our goal to establish resilient and sustainable operations in dialogue with our customers from a wide variety of sectors so that they perfectly meet our customers’ requirements. We’re setting a spectacular milestone in the long-standing relationship with ADM, which is based on trust, through the ‘Helios’,” said Steffen Bauer, CEO of HGK shipping.

Florian Bleikamp, Managing Director of HGK Dry Shipping, commented: “In order to best support our customer’s efforts for greater sustainability in its transport operations, we’re combining various technological measures to reduce CO2 emissions on board the ‘Helios’. The result fills us with a sense of pride. The journeys made by this vessel will make an important contribution for even more environmentally friendly goods traffic between the ARA ports and Central Europe in future.”

The shipping company has on order another low-emission dry cargo ship at the Dutch shipyard De Gerlien van Tiem.

Much like Helios, the ship will be equipped with a diesel-electric drive system, solar panels and designed to be “future fuel-ready”. The newbuilding is specially tailored to the requirements of German steel producer Salzgitter AG.

Scheduled to enter service in July 2025, the canal-going ship will feature a length of 86 meters, a width of 9.5 meters, and a payload capacity of 1,535 tons.