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AAL SHIPPING PLANS TO BUILD 4 MPV VESSELS AAL Shipping has added two more 33,000-deadweight-ton multipurpose vessels to its fleet and is in negotiations to build four additional IMO CO2 -compliant vessels by 2024. The MPV carrier signed a memorandum of understanding in October to add W-Class vessels to its fleet, the AAL Mars and AAL Merkur. AAL previously added four MPVs from the second-hand market: the G-Class, 28,500-dwt AAL Galveston and AAL Genoa, as well as the “mega size” W-class 33,000 AAL Paris and Grey Fox. “We have been commercially operating all of these vessels for some time, along with several of their sister vessels,” AAL said. “Already deployed worldwide to handle project heavy-lift, breakbulk, dry bulk and general cargo, they mat our customer and trade route demands perfectly.” The addition of the six vessels brings AAL’s owned fleet to 569,600 dwt, about 80 percent of its total operating fleet of 711,200 dwt. AAL said it is progressing with its “third-generation” MPV ship building program and is negotiating with the CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in China to build for four mega-size ships by 2024.
AAL Shipping’s latest additions to its fleet are a mixture of W-Class and G-Class (pictured) vessels. SOURCE: AAL SHIPPING
The vessels will be 32,000 dwt with 350-tonne heavy-lift cranes with combined 700-tonne maximum lift. AAL said the ships will be fully compliant with International Maritime Organization emissions regulations, and will feature technologies in line with the carrier’s digitalization and sustainability objectives. The carrier designed the vessels with Columbia Shipmanagement, the combined team responsible for AAL’s newbuilding ship program. “In one of the most interesting aspects of the vessels’ design, the
accommodation blocks have been located at the front of the vessel,” AAL said. “This fore position delivers flexibility to expand intake of over-dimensional cargo without obscuring visibility for the master. AAL said that within five years, nearly 57 percent of the heavy-lift fleet will be more than 15 years old and will no longer meet stringent requirements for premium paying cargo. About 48 percent) of the current MPV fleet has lifting gear of more than 100 tonnes, and about 20 percent has “heavy-lift” gear.
MASSACHUSETTS HARBOR TO SERVE OFFSHORE WIND Developers behind the 804-megawatt Vineyard Wind offshore project in Massachusetts have signed an agreement with engineering group Crowley Maritime to develop Salem Harbor into the state’s second major offshore wind port. Located about 13 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Vineyard Wind is the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. to achieve financial close, and is expected to be the first of many following successful offshore wind lease sales by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Avangrid Renewables and investment group Copenhagen Infrastructure
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Partners submitted the “Commonwealth Wind” initiative in September. If approved, it will involve development of a further 1.2 gigawatts of wind power in an area 22 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Under the terms of the agreement, Crowley Wind Services will purchase an area of 42 acres surrounding Salem Harbor Station from current owner Footprint Power and serve as the long-term offshore wind port operator. David DeCamp, director of corporate communications for Crowley, told Breakbulk the deal will see the firm marshalling a wide variety of project cargo such as “foundations and other materials” as well as “wind turbine
generator components, blades, towers, nacelles” to support installation construction. Featuring 84 GE Haliade-X turbines, Vineyard will involve significant breakbulk transport during construction, but prior to this phase the partners have identified the need to create a suitable staging area to receive and prepare the various outsized cargoes. The Vineyard Wind project has so far secured almost US$2.3 billion of senior debt and financial backers include some of the biggest names in banking, including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, BBVA, NatWest, Santander, Crédit Agricole, Natixis, BNP Paribas and MUFG Bank. ISSUE 6 / 2021
