Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has entered into a deal to buy four next-generation car carriers at Minaminippon Shipbuilding.

The newbuildings are scheduled to be delivered in 2017 and 2018 and will serve on MOL’s worldwide car carrier services.

MOL named the car carriers the ‘Flexie’ series, where the number of decks will go up to 14 from 12 on current vessels. The number of liftable decks will also increased to six from two.

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.

The new car carriers will be installed with electronically-controlled diesel engine with low load optimisation tuning by exhaust gas bypass technology.

They 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.

Another feature of the ships is wind-pressure reducing design, MOL announced.