Multipurpose carrier AAL Shipping has ordered two additional 32,000 dwt Super B-class vessels, bringing its newbuilding order up to eight.
The latest orders, AAL Newcastle and AAL Mumbai, feature an increased maximum heavy lift capability of 800 tonnes, 100 tonnes higher than the initial Super B-class design. Moreover, the two latest newbuilds will come methanol enabled, allowing them to operate with the fuel from day one.
Kyriacos Panayides, ceo of AAL Shipping, said: “This is a strategic move to strengthen our global industrial projects foothold and boost our capacity and service levels on major shipping lanes connecting Oceania, Asia, Middle East, Europe, and the Americas.”
AAL Shipping’s first Super B-class vessel, AAL Limassol, was christened in April 2024 and its maiden voyage is set to break all of the carrier’s performance records with over 77,000 freight tons of cargo booked onto the planned journey from Asia to Europe. Among the cargoes are two 135 m-long barges (1,650 tonnes and 1,425 tonnes respectively), 80.5 m-long wind blades, modules, trucks, transformers, and a dismantled crane.
“This demonstrates the objective of achieving greater economies of scale for our shippers as compared to most other multipurpose vessels,” said Christophe Grammare, managing director of AAL Shipping. “Looking into the future, the trend in industrial project cargo is towards fabricating larger and more complex components, and we need to be ahead of that curve. The combination of these new ships’ unique design, cargo handling technologies and heavy lift capabilities – which on the two additional vessels has increased to 800 tonnes maximum lift – allows them to also accommodate the far bigger and heavier cargoes of tomorrow, ones that until now may have been out of our reach.”
