Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd. has announced it is using a patented fluropolymer hull coating on one of its ships to improve hull efficiency and reduce fuel consumption. The coating is intersleek 1100Sr from international Paint Ltd. and it has been applied to Carisbrooke Shipping’s 9,530gt/2010 built Jasmine C, to reduce hull roughness and subsequently, fuel consumption. This may allow ships to be included in carbon credit initiatives such as The Gold Standard which allows fuel savings and Co2 reductions to be translated into tradable carbon credits with a cash value. In March of this year, Carisbrooke applied international Paint products on all of its remaining 6,000 DWT K Class cargo ships to improve efficiency.

The Clipper Group Ltd. has exited the tanker market with the sale of the last three chemical tanker vessels of Clipper group a/S, Danish subsidiary of the Clipper group. The group specialises in ferry services in Denmark (Danske Færger), Ro-Ro activities on the Irish Sea (Seatruck Ferries), commercial and technical management (Clipper Fleet Management), and ownership and operation of chemical tankers. The three vessels are the 2,865gt/2005 built Clipper Legacy, 2008 built Clipper Bourgogne and 2007 built Clipper Burgundy that were sold in April/May 2015 respectively.

Japan’s ocean carrier Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) plans to use some of its 7,500-unit size Ro-Ro car carriers currently under construction to transport sections of the new Hitachi highspeed trains to the U.K that are being built for use on the great Western Mainline between London Paddington and Bristol. K Line has signed a contract with Vantec HTS Forwarding, part of Hitachi Transport System group, to transport the trains for IEP (intercity Express Programme). These IEP rail cars will be loaded onto new K Line car carriers from the Port of Tokuyama-Kudamatsu, located near Hitachi’s Kasado plant, and will be discharged at the nearest port on the east coast of the UK to Newton Aycliffe, where Hitachi is constructing the train plant for these units. The transportation will commence in July. K Line ordered a total of 10 vessels of this series of 7,500-unit size. The first vessel will be rolled out in July 2015. The company says that these newbuilds provide a 20% more car-carrying capacity, as well as much more space for high & heavy cargo, including construction machinery.