AAL Shipping’s 32,000 dwt Super B-class vessel AAL Limassol has completed its maiden voyage to Europe.
Christophe Grammare, managing director at AAL Shipping said that, “the Super B-class vessels are everything we have been hoping for and more”.
AAL Limassol was delivered to multipurpose shipping specialist at a naming ceremony at the CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in Guangzhou, China, on April 26 and promptly began its maiden voyage from Asia to Europe. In China, a dismantled crane, transformers, modules, trucks, rotor houses and two 135 m-long barges, which weighed 1,650 and 1,425 tonnes respectively, were loaded onboard.
While at its last call in Asia at Tuticorin, India, the extendable eco-deck system facilitated the loading of 15 onshore wind turbine blades, weighing 30.6 tonnes each. In total, 89,000 freight tons of cargo was handled on the voyage.
AAL Limassol then departed for Europe, transiting around the Cape of Good Hope and the English Channel to Klaipeda to discharge the wind turbine blades. The vessel then continued its journey to deliver the remaining heavy cargoes in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Antwerp, Belgium and Cuxhaven, Germany.
The eco-deck allowed the ship to stow the 80.5 m-long wind blades alongside barges and other cargoes already loaded onboard. They were positioned into place using the ship’s heavy lift cranes capable of lifting a combined 700 tonnes.
Valentin Gherciu, head of operations at AAL Shipping, added: “The maiden voyage of the AAL Limassol is the perfect example of the flexibility and functionality of the Super B-class vessel design and its ability to accommodate a large and varied cargo intake. Compared to our A-class vessels, which have a similar deadweight and underdeck volume, the Super B-class fleet can handle more cargo as there are no restrictions with regard to the line of visibility.”
Grammare added that second newbuild in the series, AAL Hamburg, is now in service and AAL Houston will follow shortly. Another five of these vessels to also join the roster. HLPFI reported on the vessel’s launch in December 2023.
