A traditional steel-cutting ceremony took place earlier this week for the first of AAL’s six new Super B-Class 32K DWT heavy lift MPVs at the CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in Guangzhou, China.
The six vessels are expected to hit the water in 2024.
Representing AAL was the General Manager of AAL China, Jack Zhou and representing sister company, Columbia Shipmanagement (CSM), was Project Manager Rangel Vassilev.
The new Super B-Class heavy-lift fleet was designed by AAL’s engineers in collaboration with sister company Columbia Shipmanagement. Describing the ships as ‘mega-size’, AAL notes that the ships have 32,000 deadweight tonnes, while measuring 179.9 meters in overall length, and 30 meters beam. 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 4,500 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 & 2 and 2 & 3 providing a 700-tonne maximum lift and an outreach of 35.7 meters. This allows to spread cargo loading to the fore and aft of the vessel, optimising stowage space and time.
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 x 25 and 38 x 25 meters, with a height of 15.6 meters. And – while sailing with hatch covers open – can offer accommodate “extremely tall” cargoes.
The Super B-Class vessels are dual-fuel compatible – equipped with 7,380-kilowatt main engines and two 1,600 and one 900-kilowatt auxiliary diesel generators. The vessels will be equipped with ballast water treatment and hull coating technologies, to vessels minimise CO2 emissions and meet all forthcoming IMO regulations.
