Newport Shipping and NSB Group announced a plan to work together to develop their ship widening proposition for its customers. The NSB Group design will increase container capacity by up to 30% by implementing its unique widening concept, according to the company improving profit and resulting in a better Energy Efficiency Design Index for Existing Ships (EEXI).
The concept is about widening a container vessel in breadth while the existing main engine remains the same. Furthermore, other options are for bulbous bow optimization and propeller retrofit. During the widening process, the amount of reefer plugs can be increased to get more flexibility in the stowage plan. NSB has already carried out three ship widening projects for vessels in service for MSC, at the HRDD shipyard in China. The container intake grew from 4,872 TEU and 560 reefer plugs to 6,296 TEU and 1,131 reefer plugs.