Uni­fee­der invests in four new metha­nol powered vessels

Unifeeder Group plans to deploy the new vessels on its European network, where the new vessels will give a significant contribution to lower the emissions of the network.

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Aar­hus, Den­mark, 3rd Octo­ber 2023: Uni­fee­der Group has signed a long-term time-charter agree­ment for two new methanol-capable con­tai­ner fee­der ves­sels and has an opti­on for addi­tio­nal two simi­lar vessels. 

German-based ship owning group Elb­deich Ree­de­rei will build and mana­ge the 1250 twenty-foot equi­va­lent unit (TEU) ves­sels which will be deli­ver­ed in 2026. 

Uni­fee­der Group plans to deploy the new ves­sels on its Euro­pean net­work, whe­re the new ves­sels will give a signi­fi­cant con­tri­bu­ti­on to lower the emis­si­ons of the net­work.

Along­side parent com­pa­ny, DP World, Uni­fee­der is working with part­ners across the indus­try to find solu­ti­ons to the chall­enge of renewable-methanol sup­p­ly, which needs off-take com­mit­ments to build pro­duc­tion at the sca­le that the indus­try needs to replace con­ven­tio­nal fos­sil fuels.

In par­al­lel to the deli­very of the metha­nol capa­ble ves­sels, Uni­fee­der will con­ti­nue to impro­ve the fuel effi­ci­en­cy of the enti­re fleet deploy­ed and increase the use of bio­fuels on the con­ven­tio­nal ves­sels in the fleet. 

Jes­per Kris­ten­sen, Group CEO of Uni­fee­der Group, said:

“This is ano­ther signi­fi­cant step towards the green trans­for­ma­ti­on of our fleet and our ope­ra­ti­ons. The­se new ves­sels can be deploy­ed across our cur­rent and future net­works, offe­ring a fle­xi­ble, gree­ner solu­ti­on to our cus­to­mers.

“As the num­ber of methanol-capable ves­sels increa­ses in both our ope­ra­ti­ons and tho­se of our cus­to­mers, my hope is that this dri­ves an increase in inno­va­ti­on and pro­duc­tion among­st metha­nol pro­du­cers. This will then com­ple­te a vir­tuous cir­cle and ensu­re we can ope­ra­te more and more metha­nol capa­ble ves­sels with the right colour of metha­nol fuels in our net­works.

“Ulti­m­ate­ly though, the gree­nest fuel is the fuel that is not bur­ned. We stri­ve to offer our cus­to­mers solu­ti­ons that sup­port their own sus­taina­bi­li­ty jour­neys and whilst the­se new ves­sels are part of the ans­wer, effi­ci­ent rou­ting, secu­ring high levels of ves­sel uti­li­sa­ti­on and dedi­ca­ted capa­ci­ty manage­ment across all of our offe­rings have major roles to play as well.”

The invest­ment in the­se new ships sup­ports Uni­fee­der Group’s ambi­tious decar­bo­ni­sa­ti­on plan. Put­ting its tar­gets well abo­ve that of the indus­try avera­ge, Uni­fee­der has com­mit­ted to a 25 per cent reduc­tion of emis­si­ons by 2030, car­bon neu­tra­li­ty by 2040 and net zero emis­si­ons by 2050. It aims to achie­ve this by empha­sis­ing fuel-efficient prac­ti­ces, regu­lar main­ten­an­ce and refit­ting pro­ces­ses of the exis­ting fleet and fos­te­ring a cul­tu­re of lear­ning and col­la­bo­ra­ti­on, sha­ring best prac­ti­ces across mar­kets to dri­ve effec­ti­ve car­bon reduc­tion stra­te­gies.

Robert Fre­se, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Elb­deich Ree­de­rei, adds: “We belie­ve in methanol-capable ves­sels as part of a suite of solu­ti­ons being deploy­ed to redu­ce car­bon emis­si­ons in our sec­tor and are hap­py to con­tri­bu­te with this pro­ject to a gree­ner future in ship­ping. We real­ly look for­ward to ope­ra­ting the­se modern state-of-the-art con­tai­ner fee­der ves­sels in our part­ner­ship with Uni­fee­der and hope other mar­ket par­ti­ci­pan­ts will fol­low this exam­p­le.”

The new­buil­ding pro­ject is the latest step in a series of efforts that have been under­ta­ken bet­ween Uni­fee­der and Elb­deich Ree­de­rei to redu­ce emis­si­ons within the jointly-operated Uni­fee­der fleet. This includes the first test of Syn­the­tic Natu­ral Gas as a fuel on a com­mer­cial ves­sel, the con­ti­nuous use of bio­fuels and various ves­sel modi­fi­ca­ti­ons made to redu­ce the fuel con­sump­ti­on of exis­ting tonnage.

For fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on on our decar­bo­niza­ti­on goals and stra­tegy, plea­se visit our web­site https://www.unifeeder.com/decarbonization.

© Uni­fee­der A/S

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Uni­fee­der A/S

https://www.unifeeder.com/

 

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