Wärtsilä is to provide technical management for several systems installed on Viking Line’s new ropax ‘Viking Glory’.
This agreement comes under a three-year Technical Management Agreement (TMA) contract.
‘Viking Glory’ began her first commercial sailing recently. She features many new technologies intended to minimise climate impact and air pollution.
This agreement covers six LNG-powered Wärtsilä 31DF engines, two LNGPac fuel gas supply systems and three tunnel thrusters. It also includes maintenance planning for the Wärtsilä equipment, as well as on-demand remote operational and technical support.
Also included is Wärtsilä Expert Insight, which gives visibility into engine health, allowing advanced diagnostics and real-time optimisation of the performance and emissions.
“’Viking Glory’ is a flagship for climate-smart technology and encapsulates our group ambition to be a forerunner of responsible navigation,” said Jan Hanses, CEO, Viking Line. “Wärtsilä’s technical support as well as its technologies will help us achieve this vision.”
“Wärtsilä is delighted to continue the collaboration with Viking Line on their new flagship,” said Henrik Wilhelms, Director, Agreement Sales, Wärtsilä Marine Power.
“A vessel designed to minimise emissions is just the start. Successful maintenance and technical support is needed to keep equipment and the vessel operating at top efficiency and ensure the lowest possible carbon footprint in the future. This strong collaboration will ensure that ’Viking Glory’ delivers on its promise.”
Wärtsilä’s TMA joins its long-term Optimised Maintenance Agreement for engines and other Wärtsilä equipment on ’Viking Grace’, another highly sustainable vessel, which started trading 10 years ago.
Although ’Viking Grace’ is smaller – at 218 m rather than 222 m length and 32 m beam rather than 35 m – ’Viking Glory’ will use 10% less fuel due to the advanced technologies installed.
Optimised maintenance and technical management agreements form an essential pillar of Wärtsilä’s Lifecycle Agreements offering, helping to secure cost-effective and emissions-compliant operations across the lifecycle of customers’ vessels, the company claimed.
Other Wärtsilä equipment installed on the vessel includes the Aquarius UV ballast water management, Nacos Platinum navigation and dynamic positioning systems.
‘Viking Glory’ sails between Turku in Finland and Stockholm in Sweden starting this month.
In addition, Wärtsilä has signed a contract for its exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) to be installed on two newbuilding 218 m ropaxes at Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) in China.
Under the termsa of the contract, Wärtsilä will fit and commission two 25 MW V-SOx hybrid scrubber systems, which can operate both in open and closed loop configurations, on each vessel.
Although not confirmed by the company, the vessels were believed to be under construction for Finnlines.
By choosing to install Wärtsilä’s exhaust gas abatement technology, the ropaxes will immediately comply with the 0.5% global sulphur cap and will also be future proofed against impending regulatory change.
This is because Wärtsilä’s modular, lifecycle technologies can be upgraded to tackle other pollutants, including NOx, Particulate Matter (PM) and CO2, the company claimed.
Wang Bin, Area Sales Manager at Wärtsilä Exhaust Treatment in China, said: “We are very excited to start 2022 with this order of SOx scrubbers on board two ropax vessels being built by our partners at GSI. This agreement not only proves our long-term partnership with GSI, but also demonstrates the commercial and technical viability of scrubbers in shipping’s complex de-carbonisation landscape.”
“Our technology completely fulfils technical requirements for newbuilds, ensures compliance with current regulation and is also the first building block for future sustainability innovation. We look forward to working with GSI on this collaboration and others in our future together,” he said.
Jiang Lei, GSI Purchasing Manager, added: “It is a real pleasure for us to be working with Wärtsilä to fulfil this latest order on two ropax vessels. We recognise the long-term potential of scrubbers for solving many crucial challenges in the shipping industry and we are proud to carry out installations at our development-oriented shipyard.”
Wärtsilä and GSI will complete both vessels delivery and installation of the four scrubber systems by the end of 2023.
