The 20,170 TEU container ship ONE Trust arrived in Southampton on 19 November 2022 following the installation of a wind deflector on the bow.
Built by Samsung Heavy Industries in 2017 the ship was launched as MOL Trust and with a capacity of 20,170TEU, the class were the world’s largest capacity containerships at the time.
ONE Trust is currently the largest container ship to have this kind of device installed to date. MOL one of the three founder members of Ocean Network Express (ONE) had previously experimented with this kind of structure on the smaller 6,724 TEU MOL Marvel in 2015.
According to the shipping line, the innovative wind deflector aims to improve the ship’s aerodynamics and reduce the ship’s fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, these bow devices can reduce fuel consumption by up to 4% in ideal conditions, with real-life gains likely closer to two per cent.
The installation was carried out at the Qingdao Beihai Shipyard in China as part of the ships five-year class dry dock. The next vessel to have the wind deflector fitted is ONE Tradition (ex-MOL Tradition) which left the Beihai Shipyard around the same time the Trust arrived in the UK.
The ONE Trust along with the five other ships in the class is deployed on the Asia-Europe Far East Loop 2 service (FE2) of THE Alliance, which comprises of Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, ONE, and Yang Ming.
Ocean Network Express (ONE) was formed when the three Japanese container lines MOL, NYK and K Line merged their container operations in July 2017.
In 2023, the shipping line will receive the first in a new series of 24,000TEU ships that are currently under construction at the Imabari Shipyard in Japan. Early construction images show that these vessels will also have a wind deflector installed as part of their design.
Report and photos by Andrew McAlpine
