…As Meyer Turku Starts Hull Assembly for Costa Cruises’ New Ship***
As of September 1, 2018, Chinese-flagged and imported ships employed on domestic trades will be required to comply with the NOx Tier II emission limits, the Chinese Ministry of Transport said on Tuesday.
The Tier II/III standards were introduced by Annex VI amendments adopted in 2008, imposing new fuel quality requirements in 2011, Tier II and III NOx emission standards for new engines, and Tier I NOx requirements for existing pre-2000 engines.
The move is being announced as part of the country’s efforts to improve the quality of its waterway transportation and cutting air pollution.
The ministry said that the measure would be in force for five years and that relevant inspection and maritime agencies will conduct regular controls of both Chinese and international ships to ensure the requirements are met.
Earlier this year, China announced that it plans to stop allowing the recycling of international ships at its yards as of the beginning of 2019.
The decision comes on the back of China’s efforts to crack down on polluter and waste producing industries in the country, which have seen many yards denied their ship recycling licenses.
The Chinese-flagged ships will be allowed to continue to be dismantled at Chinese yards, however, the Government of China will no longer provide subsidies for the branch, as decided last year.
The decision is expected to slash global capacity for environmentally-friendly recycling of ships, despite the ongoing efforts from Indian yards to become compliant with the Hong Kong Convention. Hence, owners would have to start to take these yards more seriously in addition to those in Turkey.
In the meantime, Finland-based shipbuilder Meyer Turku marked the beginning of the hull assembly for Costa Cruises’ new ship, Costa Smeralda.
The shipbuilder held a coin ceremony for the 180,000 gross ton ship, the largest one being built by Meyer Turku in ten years. After this the ship will start to take form in the dry dock of Meyer Turku.
Costa Smeralda will start operation in October 2019. The first planned cruise will start from Hamburg and the ship will from there sail via Hamburg, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Barcelona and Marseilles to Savona, Italy, where a naming ceremony will be held.
The cruise ship will then continue to sail around the Western Mediterranean until April 2020.
Costa Smeralda is part of an important effort of Costa’s mother company, Carnival Corp, to bring the world’s first LNG powered cruise ships into operation. Meyer Turku has worked together with sister shipyard Meyer Werft, Papenburg to create the LNG propulsion plant for the vessel.
A sister ship to Costa Smeralda will be delivered from Turku in 2021.
“We are particularly excited to be celebrating this symbolic moment for our new ship. Costa Smeralda represents a real innovation for the international market and an important step toward setting new standards for the entire sector,” Michael Thamm, CEO of the Costa Group and Carnival Asia, said.
At the coin ceremony there was already a large part of the ship lying at the dry dock as a 140-meter-long floating engine room unit (FERU) was towed to Turku earlier last week from Meyer’s Neptun Werft, Germany.
“The floating engine room unit is part of our group strategy where we try to find synergies between the three shipyards. Building these at Neptun Werft also eases the ramp up of Meyer Turku and is a showcase of the good collaboration we have among our shipyards,” Jan Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku, said.
World Maritime News
