matson, 250 Mio. $, Pazifik-Verkehr
Source: NASSCO/Matson
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U.S. liner carrier Matson Navigation order[ds_preview]s two »Green Ship« ConRo vessels at NASSCO. The 3,500 TEU Kanaloa Class ships cost $511 million.

Matson expects to finance the vessels »primarily through cash flows from operations, borrowing available under the Company‘s unsecured revolving credit facility and additional debt financings, which could include U.S. Government guaranteed vessel finance bonds«.

The subsidiary of General Dynamics will build the ships with deliveries scheduled for the end of 2019 and mid-year 2020. Matson is calling these vessels the Kanaloa Class in honor of the ocean deity revered in the native Hawaiian culture and will name each of the new vessels after predecessor ships from its 134-year history. The first vessel will be named »Lurline«, the sixth Matson vessel to carry that name, while the second vessel will be its fifth named »Matsonia«.

According to the carrier, the Kanaloa Class vessels will be built on a 3,500 TEU vessel platform, which is 265 meters long, 34.9 meters wide (beam), with a deep draft of 11.5 meters and enclosed garage space for up to 800 vehicles. »In addition, the new vessels will have state-of-the-art green technology features, including a fuel efficient hull design, environmentally safe double hull fuel tanks, fresh water ballast systems and dual-fuel engines, meaning that they will be able to operate at speeds up to 23 knots on either conventional fuel oils or liquefied natural gas with some adaptation for LNG. These advancements are important to Hawaii as a means to reduce fuel consumption, and will result in significant emissions reductions over time«, Matson said in a statement.

»The Kanaloa Class ships will be built specifically to meet Hawaii‘s freight demands while reducing our environmental impact and improving our efficiency for decades to come.«
Matt Cox, president and CEO.

The newbuildings are supposed to replace three diesel powered vessels in active service, which will be moved to reserve status. With delivery of the Kanaloa Class ships, along with its two new Aloha Class ships, Matson plans to complete the renewal of its Hawaii fleet, allowing it to retire its seven older steamship vessels that will no longer comply with environmental regulations in 2020 without substantial modification.

Earlier this month Matson reported a rise in net income for the second quarter from $9.9 million a year earlier to $18 million. However, the huge growth was mainly due to an unusually low result in 2015.

Founded in 1882, Matson claims itself a leading U.S. carrier in the Pacific with connections to the economies of Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Micronesia and select South Pacific islands as well as a service from China to Southern California. Recently Matson announced the launch of a new »South Pacific Expres«, connecting the US west coast-Hawaii service with its South Pacific newtwork, comprising calls in Apia, Samoa, Pago Pago, American Samoa, Nuku´alofa, Tonga, Suva, Fiji and Lautoka. The fleet of 22 owned vessels includes containerships, combination container and roll-on/roll-off ships and barges.