49
interested in contracting new ships,” says
Cadiou. “We had to wait a couple of years
before we were able to sell this new design.
This is important because sometimes people
don’t know or have forgotten about this.”
Kanerva recalls: “In the meantime we
presented our findings on B.Delta37 handysize
bulker to some Canadian companies that
were interested in renewing their fleet. This
was the time when the Canadian authorities
were about to remove the import duty on
newbuildings built abroad. One of them,
Algoma Central Corporation, wanted to build
new Lakers and we designed these Great
Lakes Bulkers for them. The vessels were a
rare type, long and narrow, so that they could
pass through the St Lawrence Seaway canals,
but we could easily apply the same design
principles as in our B.Delta handy-size bulk
carriers. The difference in fuel consumption
compared to their old vessels was 70-75%.
They could hardly believe it, but we signed
the deal. It was crucial that we had our broker
there. Next, we went to a Chinese shipyard to
discuss the deal. The bulkers were ordered
from China, because they had the best prices.
Chinese ship design companies would have
done the same design work for a third of our
A rendering of
Deltamarin’s B.Delta37
bulk carrier, the first
design in the energyefficient
B.Delta family.