Schiffstechnik Buchloh Celebrates 20 Years

The engineering company domiciled in Unkel/Scheuren, Germany (close to the city of Bonn), designs and constructs passenger-, cruise- and special vessels as well as ferries with focus on inland waterway ships since 1994.

Its shipbuilding engineers design ships from bridge to engine room, knowing to choose the right propulsion devices, adequate energy aggregates, quality winches on and exclusive facilities under deck.

Schiffstechnik Buchloh keeps ship yards, ship owners, authorities and private customers in Germany and abroad on course with its expertise. Its shipbuilding engineers also have appropriate knowledge in engine building. In conjunction with its drawers and technicians they are open for extraordinary constructive ideas and share the passion for ship building and shipping.

Apart from purely designing the company also takes care of building regulations, delivery and performance procedures as well as documentation for tenders.

In 2011 Schiffstechnik Buchloh received an order from Welthungerhilfe (World Hunger Aid) in Bonn to construct and build two river ferries for the rivers Lubutu and Lowa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were necessary for the vital development of the road infrastructure in the region.

Both ferries were locally assembled under supervision of the company’s employees and successfully put into service. They are designed to operate as a link to the economic development for many years by transporting passengers and goods, especially road building machinery.

Also on inland waterways the idea of “Green Ship Technology” moves forward. Already many years ago Schifftechnik Buchloh has realized this trend and has proven the potential of building ships environmentally friendly and economical. 

Solar driven ships are positively contributing to environmental and economic purposes as they run emission free, economical and noiseless. With extremely low energy consumption in service they are presenting a real alternative. In the city of Berlin four solar ferries - designed by Buchloh - are operated in the local traffic system of the BVG.

Also on inland waterways more and more diesel electric driven vehicles are being put into service. In 2009 the world’s first river cruise vessel, the “Viking Legend” has been designed and constructed by Buchloh with innovative hybrid propulsion. With her service on European waterways she is providing environmental propulsion and saving bunkers with a significantly lower noise and low vibration in operation.

The use of fuel cells – so far known from submarines - is relatively new for ships on inland waterways. In Hamburg passengers on the Alster-lake and river enjoy this noiseless and low-emissions driven propulsion on the “Alsterwasser”, a passenger ferry designed and constructed by Schiffstechnik Buchloh.