{"id":169,"date":"2026-04-28T13:51:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/169\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:51:25","slug":"incat-electric-ferry-waiting-in-hobart-as-heavy-lift-transporter-is-stuck-in-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/169\/","title":{"rendered":"Incat electric ferry waiting in Hobart as heavy-lift transporter is stuck in Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US-Iran war and subsequent closure of the Strait Of Hormuz has sent shock waves through worldwide shipping schedules.<\/p>\n

While its main effect has been on fuel supply, it has also scuppered plans for one electric vessel.<\/p>\n

The world’s largest battery electric-powered ship, the 130-metre-long China Zorrilla, has been sitting idle in Hobart’s River Derwent, waiting to be picked up and enter service in South America.<\/p>\n

But it can’t get there.<\/p>\n

The larger heavy-lift ship that is set to carry the China Zorrilla to South America is one of thousands stuck in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

The ferry has a 90-minute run-time. Not enough to cross the Pacific Ocean to its new home. (ABC News: Mitchell Woolnough)<\/p>\n

Incat managing director Craig Clifford told ABC Radio Hobart the ship owner, Buquebus, was monitoring the situation daily.<\/p>\n

“It’s just an unfortunate coincidence where the ship was at the time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’ve got commercial arrangements in place, but, as you can imagine, they’re being frustrated at this stage, given the inaccessibility through that particular strait.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The US-Iran war has led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, off Iran’s coast, through which a large number of ships travel. (Marine Traffic)<\/p>\n

On board the ship are around 500 batteries<\/p>\n

It is enough to run the ferry for roughly 90 minutes, but not the 28-day journey from Tasmania to South America.<\/p>\n

“Traditionally, we’ve just had a customer turn up when the ship’s been ready, put hundreds of thousands of litres of diesel into the ship and sail away, but obviously that’s not the case with this particular vessel,” Mr Clifford said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Heavy-lift ships are used to carry other vessels. (Wikipedia: Max Stepanov)<\/p>\n

The world’s largest heavy-lift ships can carry around 100,000 tonnes \u2014 moving oil rigs, cargo, or other ships, like the China Zorilla \u2014 and there are only a few of them operating.<\/p>\n

“If you think about a flat-tray ute in shipping’s terms, and it will come into Hobart and sink down such that the flat tray is submerged, our vessel will go on board and then it’ll be, the ship will be lifted back up again,” Mr Clifford said.<\/p>\n

Ferry operators charged up for electric ships<\/p>\n

Mr Clifford said one option was for diesel generators to be placed on board, to power the ship’s electric motors.<\/p>\n

“All sorts of options are being explored, including alternative heavy-lift ships, so we’ll keep working with the customer in that regard,” he said.<\/p>\n

When it does enter service, the China Zorrilla will carry up to 2,100 passengers and 225 vehicles between Uruguayan capital Montevideo and Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n

At top speed, it will be able to travel at about 25 knots.<\/p>\n

\"King<\/p>\n

Denmark’s King Frederik and Queen Mary visited Incat in March. The country has ordered three of the electric ferries. (ABC News: Ebony ten-Broeke)<\/p>\n

Sea Trials for the China Zorilla were held earlier this year, testing its onboard operational performance, control systems, propulsion, and manoeuvrability.<\/p>\n

“It is a real world-leading product and we’re very proud of it and looking forward to getting it into service, as is our customer,” Mr Clifford said.<\/p>\n

Since pioneering the electric ship technology, Incat has received more orders \u2014 it is currently working on three similar battery electric ships for Danish ferry operator Molslinjen.<\/p>\n

The first of those is expected to be delivered in late 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US-Iran war and subsequent closure of the Strait Of Hormuz has sent shock waves through worldwide shipping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,305,302,303,307,301,104,304,308,306,309],"class_list":{"0":"post-169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia","10":"tag-boat","11":"tag-electric-ferry","12":"tag-ferry","13":"tag-heavy-lift","14":"tag-incat","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-ship","17":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","18":"tag-stuck","19":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}