The shipping company Nova Marine and its joint venture partner Algoma have finalized the newbuilding order for a large cement freighter and at the same time revealed the previously undisclosed charter customer.
The joint Nova Algoma project between the Swiss shipping company and the Canadian Algoma Group was announced in July last year. Since then, work has been underway to finalize the project.
Now the work has been completed and the order has been finalized, as Nova Marine announced. The order is for a modern cement transport ship with a carrying capacity of 38,000 tons. It is “the largest ship of this type in the world”, according to the press release.
Delivery is planned for 2027 – previously, the ship was expected to be delivered “at the end of 2026”. The shipyard is Xinle Shipbuilding in Ningbo. As announced, a long-term charter contract has already been signed. However, its name was not mentioned when the project was announced. Unlike now: the charterer under a long-term contract is the building materials producer Holcim.
The partners are relying on methanol for propulsion: “By increasing the intake volume and burning green methanol, CO₂ emissions from these transports will be reduced by more than 60% per year compared to current freight flows, i.e. 180,000 tons of CO₂ reduction over a period of 10 years,” writes Nova Marine.
Other vessels in the Group’s cement fleet are already equipped with dual-fuel technologies, albeit for LNG. Other features include “cold ironing” and, at least for test purposes, an air lubrication system. There is also a system for recovering waste heat from the exhaust gases of the main and auxiliary engines, which is reused to generate 250 kilowatts of available electricity.
Last summer, Nova Marine had already taken further steps towards converting the fleet. The Ticino-based company, which is owned by the Romeo and Gozzi families, acquired three ships that had recently been delivered from Japanese shipyards. These are the “Sider Imabari”, a 40,300 dwt ammonia bulk carrier that entered service in early 2024 and was built by the Shimanami shipyard, the “Sider Miramare”, a 39,172 dwt vessel built by Kurushima Shipbuilding in 2019, and the “Bolten Harmony”, a 37,155 dwt vessel that was delivered in 2020 by another Japanese shipyard, Onomichi Shipyard.
According to Nova Marine, the shipping company operates a total fleet of more than 100 ships. There are also 16 newbuilds in the order book. In Germany, the carrier is known for a joint venture with the Hamburg-based shipping company Aug. Bolten, which was set up in 2021.
In return for the ship purchases, freighters are also being sold. Four bulkers were sold – built in China in 2014 and 2015: the “Carolina Bolten”, the “Carlotta Bolten”, the “Sider Eva Maria” and the “Amorgos Bolten”.
