The vessel, 200 meters long and 35.8 meters high, was constructed at the Shin Kurushima Dockyard of the Shin Kurushima Toyohashi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd, ltd. It will hold vehicles made by Toyota Motor Corporation and other manufacturers of automobiles.

NYK unveiled the name of the upcoming 7,000 CEU building in September.

As explained, as opposed to ships using traditional heavy oil fired engines, vessel modification and the conversion to LNG will make the ship up to approximately 40 percent more energy efficient.

Compared to ships using traditional heavy oil fired engines, the vessel is also expected to minimize sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions by approximately 99 percent and nitrogen oxides ( NOx) by about 86 percent.

Before potential zero-emission ships are realized, the shipping firm is positioning LNG fuel as one of the bridge solutions.

In the future, NYK expects to convert all its newly constructed PCTCs to LNG-fueled vessels for around a decade, and hopes to move forward from around the mid-2030s to zero-emission vessels using low-emission marine fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia.

Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) classification society accredited Sakura Leader as the first Digital Smart Ship (DSS) in the world, a ship class code (notation) confirming that the vessel is fitted with advanced digital technology.

The accreditation explicitly confirms that, with the use of groundbreaking technologies, the vessel is making advanced efforts. The acquisition of these three notations is more than just a recognition of concept-design; in fact, Sakura Leader is the first certified ship in the world to participate in actual operations.

Maritime Business World