The Finnish shipping company Meriaura has [ds_preview]christened its latest coaster newbuilding, one of the first projects of Dutch shipbuilding group Royal Bodees after starting an outfitting company in Papenburg.
The EcoCoaster »Mirva VG« was baptized in Kokkola, Finland, where the vessel had arrived to load fertilizers of Yara to be carried to German Baltic port Lübeck. The vessel and its sisters are 103m long and 13.6m wide 1A-ice class dry cargo ships, with cargo capacity of 4850t.
»We are very proud of our new ship type that will meet all known maritime environmental regulations of the future. The first EcoCoaster has been in traffic now for about 2 months and the fuel consumption has been proven to be in line with the test results, that is, almost half compared to conventional cargo ships of same size and type«, Jussi Mälkiä, President of Meriaura Group said.
In Spring 2016 Bodewes had started the outfitting firm »Bodewes Papenburg GmbH« in cooperation with German company Schulte & Bruns. The main scope of work would be the outfitting of newbuildings from other Bodewes shipyards, the Dutch group initially announced. The orderbook has contracts until at least 2018 it was said and it was planned to bring ten vessels to the Papenburg subsidiary. Offices and production facilities were rented for four years as they allow the outfitting of newbuildings with up to 18m. In the Dutch shipyard in Hoogezand there would be a limit of 16m, it was said.
The hull of »Mirva VG« and her sister were constructed in Gdansk and Szczecin and then transferred to Papenburg. »Mirva VG«, the second one of the two VG EcoCoaster newbuildings Meriaura has ordered from Royal Bodewes, was delivered today to Owners in Eemshaven. According to the shipowner, it is a »supplement« to Meriaura’s fleet of 18 vessels. The sister ship »Eeva VG« was delivered already in September. Both vessels are flying the Finnish flag.
