On February 6, South Korean shipbuilder HJ Heavy Industries (formerly Hanjin Heavy Industries) held a naming ceremony for the 5,500TEU environmentally friendly container ships "Zim Yangtze" and "Zim Mississippi" built by European shipowners at Yeongdo Shipyard in Busan. More than 100 guests, including shipowners, classification societies and relevant personnel of HJ Heavy Industries, attended the naming ceremony.
With a total length of 255 meters and a model of 37 meters, the new vessel adopts an environmentally friendly design that can save 40% of fuel, and can be converted to methanol power through modification in the future, in line with the requirements of the International Maritime Organization's EEDI Phase III.
HJ Heavy Industries said that the above two container ships are the company's first merchant shipping orders signed in October 2021 after the change of major shareholders in August 2021, marking the company's re-entry into the merchant marine market after six years. Since then, HJ Heavy Industries has focused on merchant shipping orders with the goal of normalizing operations, and has so far obtained orders for 10 5500-9000TEU container ships, including methanol reserved, dual-fuel and methanol-powered ships.
The first merchant shipping order was ordered by MPC Capital, a German asset investment management company, and its partners, with a total cost of about US$67.5 million per vessel and a total contract value of 2$700 million. The naming ceremony was held in August 2023 for the first two container ships in this series, namely "Zim Danube" and "Zim Ganges". So far, HJ Heavy Industries has completed the construction of 4 5500TEU class environmentally friendly container ships.
In particular, in February 2023, HJ Heavy Industries also signed a contract with South Korean shipping company and HMM for the construction of two 9,000TEU methanol-powered container ships, with a total value of 316.7 billion won, which means that the shipyard is beginning to show its construction strength in the field of a new generation of environmentally friendly container ships.
In addition to merchant marine orders, HJ Heavy Industries also has advantages in the field of special ship types, and has won orders for the Navy's rapid landing craft, Dokdo** performance improvement project, and the Coast Guard's 3,000-ton patrol boat.