A TRADITIONAL steel-cutting ceremony took place on Wednesday (1 March) at the CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in Guangzhou China.
The ceremony was celebrating the construction of the first of AAL’s six new Super B-Class 32,000 DWT heavy lift MPVs, the AAL Limassol.
The new vessel is expected in the water next year.
In attendance was AAL China general manager Jack Zhou and representing its sister company, Columbia Shipmanagement, was project manager Rangel Vassilev.
AAL designed the new Super B-Class heavy-lift fleet in partnership with Columbia Shipmanagement.
These vessels are 32,000 deadweight tonnes and are 179.9 metres long (LOA), with a beam of 30 metres.
They have a depth of 15.5 meters and feature a low ballast draft of 6.5 meters. Each can carry up to 80,000 freight-tonnes of breakbulk cargo.
The weather deck provides 4500 square meters of clear cargo loading space, with extendable pontoons available on the starboard side.
Three port-mounted heavy lift cranes each support 350 tonnes, with tandem lifting of cranes 1 and 2, and 2 and 3, providing a 700-tonne maximum lift and an outreach of 35.7 meters.
The forward-positioned bridge and accommodation block delivers unobscured sailing visibility, with no physical restriction on cargo height.
Under deck, two large bulk-friendly cargo holds, with tripe-deck facility, measure 68 by 25 metres and 38 byu 25 meters, with a height of 15.6 meters.
The Super B-Class vessels are dual fuel compatible – equipped with 7380-kilowatt main engines and two 1600 and one 900-kilowatt auxiliary diesel generators.
