Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced that it has signed shipbuilding contracts with United European Car Carriers (UECC), Norwegian shipping company headquartered in Oslo, for two pure car and track carriers (PCTCs) with a capacity of 3,800 cars.

The vessels will be the first PCTCs to adopt dual fuel marine diesel engines which can use LNG, heavy fuel oil, or marine gas oil as fuel. When running on LNG, the vessels will be able to almost eliminate SOx emissions as compared to the case using heavy fuel oil, thus satisfying SOx emissions control regulation coming into force in Europe. NOx and CO2 emissions will also be substantially reduced. Additionally, strengthened hull enables the vessels year-round sailing in the Baltic Sea.

The vessels are to be built at Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co., Ltd., a joint venture company between Kawasaki and China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company. The vessels are scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2016.