Grimaldi's next PCTC will sail transatlantic waters
Recently, the Naples (Italy)-headquartered shipping company Grimaldi Group took delivery of the third of the seven ships commissioned to the Chinese shipyard Yangfan, located in Zhoushan. Just like her two sister ships delivered in 2019, the “Grande Houston”, a pure car & truck carrier (PCTC), will be deployed from March 2020 on the weekly Mediterranean-North America route, calling at 14 ports in Italy (Gioia Tauro, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Savona), Spain (Valencia), Belgium (Antwerp), Canada (Halifax), United States (Davisville, New York, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Houston) and Mexico (Tuxpan, Veracruz).
The new vessel has a length of 199.90 m, a beam of almost 36.5 m, a gross tonnage of 65,300 t and a service speed of 19 knots. The ship flies the Italian flag and, since it can accommodate around 7,600 ceu (car equivalent units) or alternatively 5,400 linear meters of rolling stock and 2,737 ceu, it is currently one the largest pure car & truck carriers.
With her four hoistable decks, the “Grande Houston” can load the whole range of rolling freight (trucks, tractors, busses, excavators, etc.) up to 5.3 m high. The ship is, in fact, fitted with an electronically-controlled (man energy solutions) main engine, allowing it to meet the new regulations for the reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx). It also has an exhaust gas cleaning system for the reduction of sulphur oxide emissions (SOx). (mw)