Great Ships of 2020: NYK's Sakura Leader

Greg Trauthwein, Editor

Gregory R. Trauthwein has covered the global maritime market for more than 25...

December 16, 2020

Photo: NYK

The world’s first Digital Smart Ship (DSS)

On October 28, 2020, NYK took delivery of Sakura Leader, a pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) capable of navigating oceans with only LNG as the ship’s main fuel. This delivery marks a step toward achieving NYK’s environment management target, which is to reduce CO2 emissions per ton-kilometer of transport by 50% by 2050. The vessel was built at the Shin Kurushima Dockyard of Shin Kurushima Toyohashi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.

The ship is the first large LNG-fueled PCTC to be built in Japan. Vessel modification and the switch to LNG will make the ship up to approximately 40% more energy efficient (by reducing CO2 emissions per unit of transport) compared to ships using conventional heavy oil fueled engines. The vessel is also expected to reduce sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions by approximately 99% and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by approximately 86% compared to ships using conventional heavy oil fueled engines. The vessel will be contributing to clean marine transport by carrying vehicles.

The ship was accredited by Nippon Kaiji Kyokai as the world’s first Digital Smart Ship (DSS), a ship class notation confirming that the vessel is equipped with advanced digital technology.

This particular accreditation was for DSS (Energy Efficiency), which applies to the analysis of energy consumption efficiency; DSS (Machinery Monitoring), which applies to engine monitoring, data processing on board, and data transmission to land; and DSS (Connected Ship).

Photo: NYK