Page 6 - Al-Rashed Newsletter November 2020

SHIPPING WORLD
SHIPPING NEWS

Sweden's new car carrier is the world's largest wind-powered vessel
Oceanbird might look like a ship of the future, but it harks back to ancient
maritime history -- because it's powered by the wind.The transatlantic car
carrier is being designed by Wallenius Marine, a Swedish shipbuilder, with
support from the Swedish government and several research institutions.
With capacity for 7,000 vehicles, the 650 foot-long vessel is a similar size to
conventional car carriers, but it will look radically different. The ship's hull is
topped by five telescopic "wing sails," each 260 feet tall. Capable of rotating
360 degrees without touching each other, the sails can be retracted to 195
feet in order to clear bridges or withstand rough weather. The sails, which
will be made of steel and composite materials, need to be this size to
generate enough propulsive power for the 35,000-ton ship.Although "the
general principles of solid wing sails is not new," designing the Oceanbird's
sails has been a challenge, says Mikael Razola, a naval architect and
research project manager for Oceanbird at Wallenius Marine.

The futuristic cargo ship is made of wood
In a small, rustic shipyard on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a small team
is building what they say will be the world’s largest ocean-going clean cargo
ship.Ceiba is the first vessel built by Sailcargo, a company trying to prove
that zero-carbon shipping is possible, and commercially viable. Made
largely of timber, Ceiba combines both very old and very new technology:
sailing masts stand alongside solar panels, a uniquely designed electric
engine and batteries. Once on the water, she will be capable of crossing
oceans entirely without the use of fossil fuels. Despite some hold-ups due to
the global pandemic, the team hopes to get her on the water by the end of
2021 and operating by 2022, when she will begin transporting cargo
between Costa Rica and Canada.

Container lines headed for highest profit in eight years
The overall container sector is well on track to deliver a double-digit billion-
dollar operating profit for 2020. For this year, the combined operating profit,
EBIT, for the container lines looks set to surpass USD 14 billion, projects
Sea-Intelligence. This is a significant improvement compared to 2019,
where the industry's operating profit came to USD 5.9 billion, according to
the analyst firm.

'World's loneliest elephant' heads to Cambodia after Cher campaign
DID YOU KNOW?
After years of public outcry and campaigning by the US singer and actor
The scientific term for brain freeze is Cher, the “world’s loneliest elephant” has embarked on a mammoth move
“sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia”.
from Pakistan to retirement in a Cambodian sanctuary. Dubbed by the press
You can't breathe and swallow as the world’s loneliest elephant, Kaavan was the only Asian elephant in
simultaneously.
Pakistan. A team of vets and experts from Four Paws International, an
animal welfare group that spearheaded the relocation effort, spent months
working with Kaavan to get him ready for the trip to Cambodia, which
included training the elephant to enter the massive metal transport crate
that would be placed in a cargo plane for the seven-hour flight. Kaavan was
sent from Islamabad via a Russian transport cargo lifter to Siem Reap in
north-west Cambodia.

Source : BBC, Freightwaves.com, The Guardian, https://shippingwatch.com/carriers/Container/article12579830.ece