Wärtsilä´s Orderbook Strengthens

Wärtsilä Corp. has reported a healthy increase in orders for Sulzer RTA-series low-speed engines to be manufactured in the group's Trieste factory in Italy. This year orders have been booked for 16 such engines with an aggregate power of 351.7 MW for delivery to European shipyards. Together with Sulzer low-speed engines, the factory builds a wide range of four-stroke types from the Wärtsilä 26X through the Sulzer ZA40S up to the Wärtsilä 64 type. Since the factory came under Wärtsilä management in 1997, considerable efforts have been put intomaking the factory more competitive, not just within Europe but on a world basis. The first order this year was for four Sulzer 7RTA72U-B low-speed engines for the German shipyard Aker MTW Werft GmbH in Wismar on the Baltic coast. The engines will be installed in four 2500 TEU container ships contracted by the Singapore shipowner Neptune Orient Line (NOL). Deliveries of the ships are scheduled for between October 2001 and July 2002. The engines have a maximum continuous power of 21560 kW at 99 rev/min. The ships will also be supplied with three Wärtsilä 9L20C auxiliary engines, each of 1530 kW output, manufactured at our Vaasa factory in Finland. A further two 7RTA72U-B engines were then ordered by Aker MTW for a pair of similar 2500 TEU container ships for the German owner NSB (Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft Buxtehude) and the German ship financing house Gebab. The ships are due for delivery in October and December 2002. They will again each include three Wärtsilä 9L20C auxiliary engines. A further four 2,500 TEU ships to the same design were later contracted at Aker MTW by another German shipowner Egon Oldendorff. Again they will have Sulzer 7RTA72U-B main engines from Trieste and Wärtsilä 9L20C auxiliary engines from the Vaasa factory in Finland. This run of sales success was continued with the signing of a contract for the Trieste factory to supply five 7RTA72U-B engines to another German shipyard SSW Fähr- und Spezialschiffbau GmbH, formerly known as Schichau Seebeckwerft, in Bremerhaven. The engines will be installed in five 2,492 TEU container ships ordered at SSW by the German owner E.R. Schiffahrt. This company is owned by Erik Rickmers, the brother of the above mentioned Bertram Rickmers. The ships are for delivery in 2002, and there are options for further ships to the same design. A second Sulzer 7RTA84C engine was recently ordered from the Trieste factory by the Kleven Florø shipyard in Norway. It will be installed in the second of two 42,500 dwt fruit juice carriers which the yard is building for the Brazilian owner Aleuropa GmbH, with delivery of both ships due in 2002. The Sulzer 7RTA84C engine has a maximum continuous output of 28,350 kW.