Cargill Reports Encouraging Results from 6-Month Sail Test on Bulker
Cargill Ocean Transportation, the ocean shipping arm of the commodities giant, is reporting encouraging results largely in line with projections after the first six months of testing of wind-assisted propulsion aboard a Kamsarmax bulker. Data from the Pyxis Ocean (81,000 dwt) will be used according to Cargill to inform the potential scale-up across the fleet and industry as well as providing learning to further improve the design, operation, and performance of the solid sail technology. After a partnership that began in 2019 to develop the wind technology, Cargill working with UK-based start-up BAR Technologies moved forward with the first installation of the sails on the 751-foot (229 meter) vessel completing the work in Shanghai in August 2023. The vessel built in 2017 was retrofitted with two 150 feet (37 meter) rigid sails made of a compositive material not unlike the blades for wind turbines. During the first six months, the vessel which is owned and operated by MC Shipping, a division of Mitsubishi, has completed three voyages. It crossed the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans, sailed around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, and encountered all types of…