On May 11, Taharoa Destiny, a new 175,000-DWT class vessel dedicated to the transport of ironsand slurry, was delivered to NYK, according to Exim News Service.
The ship was built at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd's (MHI) Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works.
The vessel will be chartered to New Zealand Steel Mining Ltd under a long-term contract and is expected to transport 1.2 million tonnes of ironsand slurry annually from New Zealand to China and Japan for 15 years. New Zealand Steel Mining Ltd is a subsidiary of New Zealand Steel, which became a part of the BlueScope Steel Group in 2002.
A pipeline from shore is used to load this vessel by pumping the ironsand slurry into the vessel cargo holds. After the loading operation is completed, the water in the hold is discharged before the ship sails from port.
This is the only vessel in the world designed to load ironsand slurry and thus requires advanced operating and loading/discharging techniques and knowhow, said an official release. |
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Source: transportweekly
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