AT the 2020 Asian Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain Awards in Hong Kong on 9 November, AAL Shipping took the evening’s top project heavy lift carrier award, ‘Best Shipping Line – Project Cargo’.

Given for outstanding service to the Asian shipping community, the award recognises the work done by AAL to provide reliable ocean transportation solutions within the region for the last 25 years and a significant milestone being celebrated by the carrier in 2020.

The awards hosted and organised annually by Asia Cargo News, recognise leading service providers including shipping and airlines; airports and seaports; and logistics; 3PLs and other associated industry professionals. The nomination and voting process invited more than 15,000 readers and e-news subscribers to first determine the leading companies in the market and then select their winners, making the results the exclusive opinion of actual service users.

Kyriacos Panayides, managing director of AAL, harnessed the win to praise the efforts of the AAL teams on land and sea during what has been one of the most challenging years for the multipurpose and project heavy lift sector.

“We thank everyone who voted for AAL and the organisers for putting on such a great awards ceremony. 2020 has been a perfect storm of challenges for everyone involved in the shipping sector, with trade wars, oversupply, commodity price instability and, last but most challenging of all, the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Marrying the primary need to protect the health and safety of our teams worldwide with the commitment to keep our customers’ supply chains moving has been extremely tough.

“We thank our excellent team for their continued hard work and resolve. This award is testament to their high customer service ethics and is shared equally amongst them all,” he said.