Huge fruit juice tanks fit on one vessel
AAL Shipping (AAL) has transported eight giant juice tanks from Taicang Port (China) to Setúbal (Portugal). Those juice tanks were installed on a 31,000 deadweight mega-size A-Class heavy lift vessel, the "AAL Kobe", which once sailed on the popular Asia – Europe trade lane.
AAL MD Christophe Grammare: "With almost 95% of AAL’s fleet now owned and controlled by us, we can ensure that busy trade lanes – especially those that connect Asia, with key trading markets in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia – are served with the required frequency of sailings all year round."
The entire transport was meticulously organised for those over-dimensional 150 t units, which each measured 12 x 12 x 16.5 m. The tanks were stowed on deck and extensive operational planning was required to address multiple operational challenges in the lifting and transport of the over-sized cargo. (lh)