Peter T. Leach, Senior Editor | Jul 19, 2012 9:35AM EDT
Chilean carrier CSAV said it moved closer to owning about 40 percent of its container fleet when it took delivery on July 12 of a new containership, the Tirua.
The new ship is the last of a series of seven vessels ordered from the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard as part of its ship acquisition plan. At the beginning of 2011, the company only owned 9 percent of its ships.
CSAV now ranks 20th in Alphaliner’s ranking of the world’s top 100 container lines by fleet capacity.
The new ships, all baptized with the names of Chilean rivers, are the largest used by CSAV. They all have a capacity of 8,000 20-foot equivalent units and are 984 feet long and 151 feet wide.
The engines have electronic fuel injection systems that reduce fuel consumption and burn it more efficiently, cutting gas emissions. They also have turbo-compressors that adjust for light cargoes, permitting slow-steaming operations without limiting the engines’ maximum power.
Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @petertleach.