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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Stolt-Nielsen
subsidiary Stolt Tankers says it has been commissioned by BASF to help design
and build a new inland chemicals vessel able to operate during periods of
extreme low-water levels on the Rhine river to increase security of supply for
BASF's chemicals site at Ludwigshafen, Germany, reported Chemweek.
The river, a key waterway for
the transportation of chemicals in Europe, has been regularly impacted by low
water levels during extended periods of dry weather in recent years. Existing
chemical barges have been unable to fully load cargoes, increasing transport
costs, and delaying products, Stolt says.
The proposed new barge will be
able to pass a critical point in the river near Kaub, Germany, while carrying
650 metric tonnes of cargo in a water depth as shallow as 1.60 meters. This
amount of cargo at this water depth is significantly more than any other tanker
available today, it says. The vessel will have a transport capacity of about
2,500 metric tons in average water depths, approximately double that of
conventional inland vessels, according to Stolt.
The tanker will be
built by Mercurius Shipping Group with delivery scheduled for 2022. Stolt
Tankers will operate the vessel exclusively for BASF, it says.
“Following our experience with the low water levels of the Rhine in 2018
and based on our assessment that such events may occur more frequently in the
future, we have taken a whole range of measures at the Ludwigshafen site to
increase the security of supply for production,” says Uwe Liebelt, BASF’s
European site/Verbund management. “An important element of our considerations
was to have a ship that can still reliably transport substantial quantities even
at the lowest Rhine levels,” he says.
The inland tanker will have 10
stainless steel storage tanks, a unique draft, and “set a new mark for the
transport of cargo on the River Rhine, especially when water levels are low,”
says Stolt Tankers president Lucas Vos.
The main objective for the
vessel’s development was to provide a high load-bearing capacity coupled with a
shallow draught and light weight, according to Stolt. The barge will be 135
meters in length and 17.5 meters wide, with a hydrodynamically optimized hull,
an adapted propulsion system, and three separate loading systems. It will be
powered by three electric motors, fed by latest generation diesel generators
with exhaust gas after-treatment.
As MRC informed earlier,
BASF says its 420,000-metric ton/year steam cracker in Ludwigshafen, Germany is
continuously running and has not caused any interruption of supply to its
customers. Earlier, several media outlets reported that unscheduled flaring
started on 13 January at the northern part of the Ludwigshafen site and was
expected to last until 17 January and that an unspecified unit was shut, which
"was not the case", as per the company's letter received by MRC.
Ethylene
and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene
(PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report,
PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and
reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the
greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia
increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months
of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase
in imports.
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide
range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues,
electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic
chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical,
construction, textile and automotive industries. |
