AAL has celebrated its inaugural call at Felixstowe with the delivery of four RTGs from China.
This delivery was part of a development project that is expected to see the UK’s major container port add an additional 18,000TEU of container storage capacity.
The ZPMC Chinese RTGs were loaded in Shanghai and shipped to Felixstowe aboard the 31,000DWT AAL Kobe.
Each of the units measured 32 m x 14 m x 30 m and weighed just under 200 tonnes.
During the discharge operation, Port of Felixstowe head of corporate affairs Paul Davey visited the AAL Kobe to hand-over a commemorative plaque to Captain Aleksandr Afanaskin.
AAL commercial director Christophe Grammare said they were delighted to be back in the UK with such an impressive project cargo.
“Although the UK is a significant container shipping market – Felixstowe being the sixth busiest container port in Europe with about 26m tonnes of cargo each year – it is not immediately associated with project heavy lift cargo,” Mr Grammare said.
“The RTGs were shipped there on-deck of the AAL Kobe which, with a highly flexible cargo capacity.. was also carrying additional project cargo under-deck that was discharged a few days later in Ireland.”
CPIA general manager Captain Dai said the cooperation between ZPMC, AAL, Port of Felixstowe and CPIA was seamless.
“AAL’s professional and careful handling of this cargo throughout loading, stowage and discharge operations was impressive,” he said. “Well done to all involved.”
