Scheepswerf Ferus Smit in Leer, Germany launched Symphony Shipping’s newbuild Ecobox XL vessel, Symphony Atlantic. It is the first in a series of two vessels, an evolution of the Ecobox and Ecobox DP series that the yard already delivered to Symphony in recent years.

The new Ecobox XL design has its focus on loading extra long items, such as windmill blades, while at the same time still maintaining her good capabilities as a general cargo ship, according to Symphony Shipping. The modifications in design and systems are also aimed to further enhance its green performance with a reduction of her EEDI-score to a new class reference standard.

Therefore the original Ecobox design is lengthened by more than 21 metres, extending the vessel’s box shaped hold to more than 100 metres length on the tanktop, and 112 metres above the movable tween deck level. The new ships are 18 metres wide, enhancing her cargo deadweight further, and maintaining the flexibility of loading while keeping a very low resistance on both flat water and in waves.

Fuel consumption is further reduced by integrating a novel ORC waste heat generator in the propulsion system. This system further consists of a 3300 kW main engine driving a nozzled controllable pitch propeller running in fully automatic combinator mode. The fuel system will also be suitable for bio blend fuels.