Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) announced it has signed a contract with Minaminippon Shipbuilding to construct four next-generation car carriers.The vessels will be handed over in 2017 and 2018, the company said in a statement on April 23.

The capacity of each vessel is 6,800 units of standard passenger vehicles.

Deck construction of the newly ordered car carriers will be substantially altered to change the number of decks from the current 12 to 14. Furthermore, the number of liftable decks will be increased from two to six. This means two adjustable decks can be placed between two fixed decks.

The newly designed liftable decks will offer greater flexibility in accommodating vehicles of different heights, improving loading efficiency and meeting demand for more diversified vehicle transport.

MOL named the car carriers featuring this new deck construction the "FLEXIE" series. The company will not only develop a global marketing effort in vehicle transport service to promote the flexibility of the new carriers' liftable decks, but also strengthen group-wide marketing efforts to build awareness of the MOL Project & Heavy Cargo service.

The newly ordered car carriers will be installed with electronically controlled diesel engine with Low Load Optimisation (LLO) tuning by Exhaust Gas Bypass (EGB) technology.

The new carriers will also adopt waste heat energy recovery system for generator engines and electric power consumption reduction technology.

In addition, the vessels' hull form design will be improved, especially for low-speed range, based on ship performance analysis of existing carriers.

The ships will also mark a step forward in wind-pressure reducing design, one of the basic technologies in the Senpaku ISHIN project, which MOL has been developing since 2009.

The new ships' reduced susceptibility to wind resistance will improve fuel efficiency in comparison with existing vessels and significantly reduce their impact on the environment.