AAL SHIPPING has used to occasion of the official unveiling and naming of its latest Super B-Class vessel, AAL Newcastle, to announce it will extend the series to ten ships via orders for two more of the improved version.
Image: AAL Shipping
AAL Newcastle is the seventh of the innovative Super Bs and the first of the upgraded model, featuring an increase in individual crane capacity from 350 to 400 tonnes. The eighth, AAL Mumbai will be delivered in June while the ninth and tenth, AAL Tianjin and AAL Miami, are due to be completed in 2028.
All Super Bs have/will be built at the CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in Guangzhou, China, which has been constructing ships for AAL parent the Schoeller Group and partners for three decades, also building a lasting relationship.
AAL said the AAL Newcastle ceremony today [31 March] marked a significant milestone in the carrier’s long-term fleet development strategy.
“The AAL Newcastle and her sister newbuild vessels, embody AAL’s commitment to continuous improvement and customer driven innovation; whose needs have been kept in the forefront of the design,” AAL Shipping CEO Kyriacos Panayides said.
“Combined with our award-winning engineering and operations teams, the Super B-Class vessels are already performing industry first operations — operations we are incredibly proud of. We would like to thank the shipyard and the designers who have helped bring these vessels into the project cargo market.”
The significant technical improvements for the latest four vessels are aimed at elevating lifting performance and cargo flexibility.
“As cargo requirements evolve, particularly in the offshore renewable energy sector, our fleet must evolve with them,” Yahaya Sanusi, deputy head of AAL Engineering, said.
“The vessels increased combined lifting capacity of 800 tonnes will open opportunities previously beyond the fleet’s reach; longer tower sections can now be safely single-lifted to accelerate loading and discharge operations.”
In addition to the increased crane capacity, AAL has introduced further design refinements across the four new vessels to support faster cargo operations and optimise deck utilisation. The vessels will feature a new 26-metre lifting beam, an upgrade from the 20-metre beams deployed on earlier vessels, enabling the handling of elongated structures with greater ease and precision.
Additional enhancements to the main and auxiliary hooks, offer approximately one additional metre of outreach, expanding lifting envelopes and improving the handling of oversized project cargoes, AAL says.
AAL Antwerp, the first of the Super Bs, is due to make its inaugural voyage on the carrier’s Asia-East Coast Australia (AUEC) liner service in June, calling Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle and Brisbane after loading in Incheon, Tianjin and Taicang.