Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has signed a contract covering construction of four next-generation "FLEXIE" car carriers at Minaminippon Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.
To be delivered in 2017 and 2018, the ships will serve on on MOL's worldwide car carrier services and will offer increased capacity and a new deck design for more flexible loading.
Deck construction of the newly-ordered car carriers will be substantially altered to change the number of decks from the current 12 to 14. Furthermore, the number of liftable decks will be increased from two to six. This means two adjustable decks can be placed between two fixed decks.
The newly designed liftable decks will offer greater flexibility in accommodating vehicles of different heights, improving loading efficiency and meeting demand for more diversified vehicle transport.
MOL named the car carriers featuring this new deck construction the "FLEXIE" series. The company will not only develop a global marketing effort in vehicle transport service to promote the flexibility of the new carriers' liftable decks, but also strengthen group-wide marketing efforts to build awareness of the "MOL Project & Heavy Cargo" service.
With a length of 199.95 m and breadth of 32.2 m they will have a capacity of 6,800 standard passenger vehicles.
The newly ordered car carriers will be installed with electronically-controlled diesel engine with Low Load Optimization (LLO) tuning by Exhaust Gas Bypass (EGB) technology. The ships will also adopt waste heat energy recovery system for generator engines and electric power consumption reduction technology.
In addition, the vessels' hull form design will be improved, especially for low-speed range, based on ship performance analysis of existing carriers.
MOL and Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co.,Ltd. are Minaminippon's main shareholders.