Neighbouring ship owners order four Damen Combi Freighter vessels

(Posted on 18/07/22)

One hundred and ten year old ship management company Reederei Wessels recently made the same purchase as 137 year old HS Shipping Group, both from Haren/Ems in the north of Germany. They both ordered two Damen Combi Freighter 3850 (CF 3850) vessels. Unmatched performance in relation to loading capacity, speed maintained and economical fuel consumption inspired their choice.

Both ship management companies have an impressive fleet. HS Schiffahrt operates 59 vessels, ranging from ocean going container vessels, bulkers, minibulkers and general cargo vessels. The company executes the technical and commercial management of their vessels for charterers. The company is led by the fifth generation of the Schepers family. All the successive Schepers men at the helm have first names that begin with an ‘H’, this is why HS Schiffahrt has always remained the applicable name for the company. In the year 2000, it expanded into the HS Shipping Group.

Reederei Wessels manages a current fleet of 20 vessels including some vessels in third party management. The company specialises in short sea shipping. This is also a family-owned company with a long tradition. It started with the build and exploitation of a ferry over the river Ems in 1912, which was designed to not only cross the river but also be able to sail to along the shallows of the Wadden Sea towards the isles.

HS Shipping Group as well as Reederei Wessels are repeat customers with Damen Shipyards. Over the past decades, Damen has delivered new built container feeders and combi freighters to HS Schiffahrt. Reederei Wessels has had good experiences and successful operations with the CC 125 general cargo vessels they ordered at Damen, the predecessor of the CF 3850. Sales manager Remko Bouma from Damen Cargo Vessels is pleased to see these customers return. “The positive experiences of these ship owners with Damen are very encouraging. We believe that with the new CF 3850, we can offer a general purpose vessel that performs extremely well. Their belief in this concept and the previous experiences, have made the co-operation with both Ems-based companies very pleasant.”

This newly designed general cargo vessel, with a 3850 tonnes deadweight, measuring 89.70 meters length overall at 12.50 meter beam is capable of maintaining more then 10 knots of speed in headwinds when fully loaded. Redesigned hydrodynamic properties of the hull shape enable this performance, demanding less power than comparable vessels and therefor equipped with a smaller engine, consuming considerably less fuel.

As short sea shipping has returned to steady profitability following several years of tight markets, a lot of ship owners see the time fit to renew their fleets. Most of the short sea vessels are over ten years old. Environmental demands by IMO as well as the EU have gotten stricter. Excellent performance of the CF 3850 at the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) positions this vessel to live up to current and future emission standards. This makes the vessel a sound investment, as it can operate for years to come to perform at great efficiency.

The excellently performing short sea vessel by Damen is being ordered at large numbers by a big variety of clients. There are now four of these vessels with the upgraded design in operation, with 13 on order. They will be built in series at the Damen Yichang Shipyard in China.

Damen Shipyards Group has been in operation for over ninety years and offers maritime solutions worldwide, through design, construction, conversion and repair of ships and ship components.