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We are the guest of Dr. Wolfgang Honemann, managing director
of Rhenus Logistics and Herbert Berger, manager of the techni-
cal department at the head office of Rhenus PartnerShip in Duis-
burg-Ruhrort. They are pleased to give a detailed explanation of
the construction of the ms RHENUS DUISBURG: before the order
is given to design and build a new ship within our own fleet, an
extensive examination takes place within the framework of Rhe-
nus Logistics’ mission ‘Together with Passion’ on how a new ship
will add value to the quality and reliability of service to their cus-
tomer. ‘You cannot just deploy a ship from the market’ says Ho-
nemann, ‘Every customer, every load, each route and transport
plan demands a specific performance that we must bring about
together with our customer’ he continues and gives an example.
The shipping of agricultural bulk on the Danube requires a dif-
ferent approach than the transport flows to the industrial hinter-
land of the Rhine. Honemann: the container transport that we
maintain within our 45 scheduled transport services constitutes
approximately 20% of our transports. The remaining 80% of the
(bulk) load consists of building materials, minerals, chemicals,
coals and agricultural products.
Last year our share in the transport on the European inland wa-
terways amounted to 456 million tonnes. When the load is of
strategic importance for the recipient additional agreements are
made that do not frustrate a ‘just-in-time’ process. We heard for
instance that a chemical factory could not be supplied over wa-
ter through an obstruction of the Rhine. Within Rhenus Logistics
a previously defined redundancy plan was immediately imple-
mented: replacement transport by train and truck. If it is neces-
sary unexpectedly, the same solution can also be applied within
transport contracts for the provisioning of coal burning power
plants.
Within the normal daily course of events everything possible is
done with tight and realistic sailing schedules to guarantee the
normal operations of the company through a constant supply of
goods. Within the context of an underlying transport contract the
ms RHENUS DUISBURG is ‘tailor made’ to guarantee a
maximum coupled load capacity for which the heights of bridges
along the route are taken into account. The ship has been deve-
loped in close consultation with the customer and with the
support of the Development Centre for Ship Technology and
Transport Systems (DST). It has a length of 110.00 x 11.45 me-
tres and has a maximum draught of 3.20 metres.
Herbert Berger explains that the ms RHENUS DUISBURG sails
with three barges from ports within the ARA region to Wesel.
This requires a large motor capacity. Rhenus has opted for two
Caterpillar main engines of the 3512C type, each with a capacity
of 1118kW. Each engine drives a screw with a diameter of 2000
mm. To optimize the water supply to these large screws it was
decided to apply the Van der Velden ‘flex tunnel’.
These can be extended at low water so that they can continue to
provide the screws with an undiminished flow of water. The ms
RHENUS DUISBURG is the first ship on which ‘flex tunnel’ tech-
nology has been applied.
For the route from Wesel to Luenen two barges are coupled to a
waiting canal pusher. On the canal the ms RHENUS DUISBURG
sails with one barge for which the propulsion occurs through two
C18 type Caterpillars, which are both good for 368kW. The re-
turn journey with three barges from Wesel again takes place only
using the capacity of the two C18 engines
The hull for the 110.00 metres long ms RHENUS DUISBURG was
delivered by Rensen-Driessen. It has been built at the S.C. San-
tierul Naval Orsova S.A. shipyard in Romania. Up till now Rensen-
Driessen has had almost fifty hulls built there, the quality of which
have been amply proven in the market. Dolderman in Dordrecht
is going to finish the ship and deliver it turnkey to Rhenus Logis-
tics.
During the building of the ship the relationship between Rhenus
Logistics and Rensen-Driesen Shipbuilding was continued even
further with a second order: another double walled slob tanker
will be built for use on the Danube.