Stena RoRo announced on January 28 via its official website that it has placed a historic order for a new generation of RoRo vessels comprising two firm vessels of the C-Flexer type with options for an additional four. The deal marks an important step in the company’s long-term strategy to offer flexible and future-proof RoRo ships to the global market. The vessels have been developed by Stena RoRo in close cooperation with the Italian design company NAOS Ship and Boat Design.
The vessels will be built at China Merchants Industry (CMI) Weihai Shipyard. A decade long partnership between Stena RoRo and China Merchants Industry has so far resulted in 17 vessels ordered at the shipyard. The cooperation began in 2016 with an order for 4 E-Flexer RoPax vessels and has since grown to a total of 15 vessels, 12 of which have already been delivered. In addition 2 RoRo vessels of the Stena NewMax concept have been delivered.
The first two C-Flexer RoRo vessels are scheduled for delivery in March and June 2029 respectively. The optional vessels will be delivered at three-month intervals thereafter.
The Stena C-Flexer features the following basic specifications: overall length of 200 meters, beam of 31 meters, deadweight tonnage of approximately 15,000 tons, draft of 7.5 meters and a service speed of 21 knots; in terms of lane meter capacity, the 3-deck variant offers 3,400 lane meters while the 4-deck variant provides an increased 4,750 lane meters.
The new C-Flexer design offers a high degree of flexibility, enabling Stena RoRo to provide customers with vessels tailored to their specific operational needs. A highly developed hullform, multi-fuel engines and a scalable battery-hybrid system ensures that the vessels are future-proofed and can be progressively “greened” in line with both technological advances and regulatory developments.
“With Stena RoRo’s extensive experience and market knowledge, combined with NAOS’ outstanding expertise in designing fuel-efficient RoRo and RoPax vessels, we have developed ships that are built for today and designed for tomorrow,” says Per Westling, CEO of Stena RoRo AB.
“The cooperation between CMI Weihai and Stena RoRo has been crucial to the success of the RoPax and RoRo concepts delivered so far,” says Per Westling. “It has enabled us to supply both Stena Line, as well as external customers, with tailor-made vessels delivered on time and with very high quality.”
“In the future the C-Flexer will be able to operate entirely on batteries. Until then, the installed diesel-battery hybrid system will provide the necessary flexibility and redundancy for many years to come,” concludes Per Westling.