Wärtsilä has been awarded the contract to supply its Wärtsilä Auxpac 32 generating sets for eight new 13500 TEU container vessels being built for China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL), the company said in its press release. Four generating sets are needed for each vessel, making a total of 32 sets in all. The order was placed in March 2016 with Wärtsilä’s joint venture company, CSSC Wärtsilä Engine (Shanghai) Co Ltd (CWEC). The ships have been ordered from the Hudong-Zhonghua yard in China.
The total power output from the contracted Wärtsilä engines will exceed 100 MW. Delivery of the engines to the yard will commence in the first half of 2017.
The customer’s requirements for these vessels were reliability, economic fuel consumption and high availability. The powerful Wärtsilä Auxpac 32 engine is capable of meeting these requirements.
The Wärtsilä Auxpac 32 is the auxiliary engine version of the well-proven Wärtsilä 32 family, of which more than 1200 engines are in operation worldwide. It is Wärtsilä’s most powerful Auxpac generating set and is aimed at the upper end of the merchant shipping market, notably large container vessels with an auxiliary power need of from 2500 kWe to 4500 kWe per generating set. This powerful output, together with its compact design, gives it a power-to-space ratio that is outstanding compared to alternatives on the market.
CWEC is a joint venture company established by CSSC and Wärtsilä in July, 2014. CWEC is the first company capable of producing large bore medium speed diesel engines and dual-fuel engines in China, with the main target being large container vessels, LNG carriers, offshore sector vessels, cruise & ferry ships, and other special vessel markets. CWEC produces 4-stroke Wärtsilä 26, Wärtsilä 32, Wärtsilä 34DF, Wärtsilä 46F and 46DF engines and generating sets.