While a strong industrial cluster, judicious subcontracting, and a pragmatic approach to technology have ensured continuity of Dutch shipbuilding production, Dutch designers have also substantially extended their market reach beyond home shores, writes David Tinsley
Dutch government acknowledgement of the economic importance and vitality of the country’s marine industries was implicit in the July announcement this year that the final allocation of money had been made from the National Growth Fund so as to realise the Maritime Masterplan.
The ambitious €210 million (US$229 million) programme is focused on the joint development and construction of at least 30 demonstration vessels to stimulate the transition to ‘sustainable’, climate-neutral shipping, nurturing technological advance in design and production. Front-runners in energy-related propulsion and integration studies will be hydrogen, methanol and LNG with carbon capture. Digital twin methodology and model-based systems engineering are crucial elements in the digital landscape of the Maritime Masterplan.
The initial research call has a funding depth of €85 million (US$93 million) and is to be followed by second and third calls in 2026 and 2029, respectively.
Vessels shaped by Dutch flair
In the meantime, the shipbuilding sector continues to draw on its own resources in ensuring continuity and international competitiveness, offering quality and craftsmanship at an acceptable price. Epitomising Dutch flair in the design, construction and operation of ultra fuel-efficient, versatile cargo ships, characteristically coupled with a dynamic but shrewd approach to new business opportunities, Wagenborg Shipping has bolstered investment in its EasyMax generation.
Playing to the northern shipowning, shipmanagement and logistic group’s strengths in the dry cargo and project freight sectors, the innovative concept took first form in the 14,300dwt, 2017-commissioned Egbert Wagenborg. Second-of-class Maxima followed in 2021, with the third ship, Amalia, brought into service earlier this year, and the fourth example of the striking design, Alexia, now approaching completion by Royal Niestern Sander.
Encapsulating the guiding tenets of ‘easy to build, easy to operate, easy to load’, two further EasyMax vessels are due to be added to the fleet in 2025. As a response to intensified competition, and heightened environmental requirements, and targeting evolving and emergent fields of short-sea transportation and potentially also North Atlantic trade, the type leads the EEDI league table in its segment, with the lowest CO2 footprint per tonne of cargo carried.
As well as being a product of the local shipbuilding industry at Delfzijl, where Wagenborg has its headquarters, the vessel series embodies a high proportion of Dutch content, underscoring the fact that the Netherlands, and the northernmost provinces in particular, remain firmly committed to national industrial production as a complement to technological and practical maritime skills.
With an exceptionally high length-to-breadth ratio, and forward bridge and accommodation, the design embodies two holds (without understow) affording a total 625,000ft3 capacity for forestry goods, including timber, paper and cellulose, steel products, bulk commodities, breakbulk freight, and project shipments and indivisible items such as wind turbine components and other offshore equipment, machinery, and industrial plant.
The 2,999kW maximum continuous output of the medium-speed main engine is transmitted through a geared driveline to a controllable pitch propeller, mounted in a nozzle to maximise thrust. Sailing at 11knots on a draught of about 8.3m in good sea and wind conditions, with the shaft generator engaged, fuel consumption is approximately 9tonnes per day.
Marrying the objective of suitability for serial production with a sophisticated design that answers to shipowners’ energy transition strategies, the Labrax 7280 cargo vessel class from Thecla Bodewes has generated substantial business for the group’s Kampen yard. Featuring a modular diesel-electric propulsion setup and advanced power management system, the 7,300dwt trader developed in conjunction with Groot Ship Design gives a 329,700ft3 underdeck capacity on a hull length of 119m.
The sixth of 12 sisters booked by Vertom was launched at Kampen in July, and a further two vessels are on order for Carisbrooke Shipping.
Efficient and eco-friendly maritime transport solutions
Groningen-based Conoship International has an outstanding reputation in the field of short-sea and small cargo vessel design, reflective of technical prowess complemented by commercial insight borne of close attunement to the shipowning and operating community.
Recent and ongoing development of the CI portfolio shows a gravitation towards diesel-electric main power. Electric motors favour the use of a larger-diameter propeller in combination with an optimised aftship form, as expressed in the ConoDuctTail arrangement. This promotes high propulsive efficiency and allows for comparatively modest power in the electric propulsion motors. The company’s initiatives as regards wind-assisted propulsion systems also infuse the latest design offerings.
Drawing on the concept and market receptivity to the CIP3600- and CIP3800-series diesel-electric coasters, Conoship has augmented its line-up with a 100m version at 6,375dwt. The CIP6300 type offers a highly competitive 317,000ft3 cargo volume in a single hold with tanktop strengthening to 15tonnes/m2. The distributed power setup characterising the CIP family takes the form of four main gensets and two electric motors in the CIP6300 design, promising 4.8tonnes per day fuel consumption at maximum 10.5knots, down to 2.5tonnes/day sailing at 8knots.
The modular system and configuration provides for adaptation at economic cost, such as replacing the diesel generators with methanol-burning aggregates (and retrofitting methanol tanks), or substituting the whole with fuel cells and liquid hydrogen tanks. Furthermore, while the 3600 and 3800 types allow for the mounting of twin VentiFoils forward, at the fo’c’s’le, the CIP6300 can accept an array of three VentoFoil sails (the latest version of VentiFoil) along the port side. Conoship says that adoption of the wind-assist solution has the potential to cut fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by about 10%, depending on the sailing route.
Earlier this year, endorsement of the latest, future fuel-ready general cargo vessel class came by way of the design’s nomination in an eight-ship construction contract awarded by Norwegian short-sea specialist Wilson ASA to Cochin Shipyard. The order features an option to install three VentoFoil units on each vessel. The deal extends Wilson’s newbuild programme at the Indian yard to 14, as six ships encapsulating the CIP3800 blueprint were booked there in June 2023.
Returning business for a Dutch product in the short-sea domain has also lately included two 6,750dwt ice-classed cargo vessels booked by Royal Bodewes from Finnish owner Meriaura.
The pair of 105m newbuilds of the EcoTrader series, due for delivery by the Hoogezand yard in January and December 2026, respectively, will be approximately 30% larger than the two EcoCoaster-type vessels Eeva VG and Mirva VG received by Meriaura in 2016. Like the EcoCoasters, the EcoTraders will be engineered to operate on biofuel derived from recycled raw material and produced by Meriaura subsidiary VG-Ecofuel.
Prominent short-sea tanker and dry cargo vessel owner Erik Thun has extended its fleet development programme this year by placing a further tranche of orders with Dutch shipbuilder Ferus Smit. The latest round of contracts comprises two further units of the 7,999dwt battery-hybrid R class tanker type, taking the newbuild series to eight, plus fifth and sixth examples of the 5,100dwt LakeVanernMAX multi-purpose cargo carrier design, maximised for trade through the Trollhattan Canal to Swedish inland ports on Lake Vaner.
The 14-ship production schedule is mainly concentrated at Ferus Smit’s Westerbroek headquarters yard near Groningen, on the Winschoterdiep waterway, although a number of the newbuilds have been assigned to the Dutch builder’s yard at Leer, just across the border in Germany. The 115m R (Resource Efficiency) class made its debut in February this year with the Leer-built Thun Resource, chartered to Swedish oil refiner Nynas.
The 9,540m3-capacity R tankers are a derivation of the preceding E class commissioned by Thun from Ferus Smit between 2018 and 2021. Complying to Finnish-Swedish 1A ice class criteria, the newbuilds’ trading capability ensures unfettered, all-year Baltic navigation. The adaptive propulsion system minimises energy usage through recourse to a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) battery pack. The small-bore Wärtsilä medium-speed engine of around 1,950kW gives the option for operation on cleaner future fuels. Significantly, in announcing orders for the seventh and eighth units, Thun made reference to “our methanol-ready Resource Efficiency Class”.
Bridging the gap between design and operation
Giving added depth and scope to the Dutch maritime cluster, the Seven Oceans Simulator centre (SOSc) was formally inaugurated in May this year at MARIN’s Wageningen establishment. Claimed to be unique, SOSc will contribute to maritime safety and technology by realistically simulating the behaviour and interaction of ships and crews in challenging conditions and situations at sea. Advanced digital twinning on simulators will allow designers and sea-going personnel to work together to gain insights into performance under operational conditions before ships are built.
The opening of MARIN’s Seven Oceans Simulator centre is a significant development for the Dutch maritime cluster. Source: Conoship International
The centre will provide the wherewithal both for research, as into the application of virtual reality (VR) techniques and monitoring of autonomous vessels, and for crew preparation in keeping with the growing complexity and size of container ships and other types in the face of the increasing unpredictability of weather patterns.
SOSc features spherical simulators giving wrap-around, upward and downward projection, with a moving bridge, and a laboratory incorporating VR/AR (augmented reality) technologies, plus human factor management and observation techniques.
The wealth of collaborative research initiated by MARIN continues to be refreshed year-on-year, and a prospective addition to the workload is the STA-2 joint industry project (JIP). The original Sea Trials Analysis (STA) JIP conducted by MARIN with shipowners, yards and the classification sector yielded results that ultimately provided the basis for international standards to verify the performance of newly built and existing ships. Although the developed standard was a stark improvement over the previous methods, after many years of application there is now a perceived need for enhancement.
STA-2 JIP aims to refine the methodology and meet increasingly stringent demands on accuracy, while maintaining the current system’s appeal as to practicality and transparency for sea trial managers and EEDI verifiers, for example. MARIN is looking to get the project under way by the end of 2024, and is inviting ship operators, builders, class societies and others to join the endeavour.
