Langh Ship Orders Containerships

The Finnish shipping company Oy Langh Ship Ab in Pikis has ordered two container ships for delivery in February and March 2007 from the German shipyard J.J.Sietas Schiffswerft in Hamburg. The ships will have a cargo capacity of 907 TEU (twenty foot equivalent units), which means that they will be among the biggest ships of this kind in Finland.

The ships under construction are typical container ships for feeder traffic.

However, they can also be used for other kinds of dry cargo, says Hans Langh, Managing Director at Langh Ship. According to him, the great increase in container traffic, including traffic to Russia, is one of the reasons why Langh Ship has decided to concentrate on container ships of this size. With the highest ice class 1A Super they will be able to handle difficult ice conditions in the northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland.

After delivery, the newly constructed vessels will be time-chartered for container traffic in the Baltic Sea and in the North Sea.

Laura Langh, commercial director at Langh Ship, has been working intensively with the newbuilding project. She explains that the shipyard is building the new vessels as pure container ships and that the vessels will be equipped with cell guides in the cargo holds.

These cell guides may be moved so that we can load 45- and 30-feet containers in addition to the normal 20 and 40 feet units, says Laura Langh. The cell guides can also be removed as the vessels are also suited for carrying bulk cargo.

The vessels are also being prepared for installation of our patented tween-decks for the transport of steel coils, says Laura Langh. The four cargo holds will be equipped with hydraulically operated hatches by MacGREGOR. However, the majority of containers will be loaded on the hatches of the deck. Closest to the superstructure astern, seven containers can be piled up on top of each other. The vessels can load up to 200 refrigerated containers, of which 100 in the cargo hold and 100 on the deck.

The main engines of the newbuildings will be delivered by Wärtsilä and have an output of 8,400 kW. The machinery provides a cruising speed of around 18 knot. It was also decided that the vessels will sail under the Finnish flag. The shipping company has an agreement with the trade unions and the maritime authorities about a minimum crew of ten, which will enable the Finnish crew to take on the challenges of tough international competition.