The pure truck car carrier Auto Eco was delivered by Kawasaki Heavy Industries from its China joint venture yard NACKS in Nantong on 29 September.

The vessel is dual fuel and can run on either LNG or heavy fuel and marine gas oil.It is the first of two sister vessels that will be deployed by UECC, a joint venture between Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and Wallenius Lines in Northern Europe.

“These vessels will be put into service in Europe, where strict sulphur emission regulations have been introduced. LNG does not emit any sulphur oxides (SOx) or particulate matter (PM) and significantly less nitrogen oxides (Nox) and carbon dioxides (CO2) compared to conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO) and marine gas oil (MGO).  Thus, these vessels will easily meet the emissions regulation,” NYK said.

The Auto Eco has a car carrier capacity of 3,985 units and has Finnish/Swedish ice class 1A allowing year round operations in the Baltic.

Source: seatrade-maritime.com