Safmarine to get six MPV's this year
SHIPPING: Danish shipping group A.P. Moller Maersk subsidiary Safmarine has taken delivery of the Safmarine Samba, the first of the six new Multi Purpose Vessels that it ordered in August 2008.
"Countries such as Japan, Korea and South-East Asia have regular shipments of breakbulk cargo including equipment and rolling stocks to Africa. The swift development of China in recent years has also led to increased project cargo being shipped from China to Africa and raw materials from Africa to China", says Hu Ke, Asia Line Manager, MPV Service.
Fifteen of Safmarine's fleet of 68 vessels are MPVs, which can carry both breakbulk cargo and containers. These are specifically designed to carry odd-sized and heavy cargo which is unsuitable for containers, such as locomotives, construction equipment, and steel products and pipes and the remaining five ships on order are all scheduled to be delivered in 2011.
"Currently, we have a monthly service between Far East Asia and West Africa, with vessels calling at ports in China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and West Africa. The six new MPVs will allow us to increase our frequency to a bi-weekly service, and cover more Asian ports, for example in Japan and Indonesia" Hu says..
As a sign of the growing importance of the Asian market for its MPV business, a newly structured MPV department has been set up and is headed by, Grant Daly, who was previously the Asia regional head for Safmarine.
"Whilst focusing on our core strength and expertise in Africa, we believe that developing our MPV business in Asia is the right approach going forward. The increasing global importance of the Asian economies, supported by the changing trade and sourcing patterns toward Asia make our commitment to this service ever more important," commented Grant.
More about MPVs
• MPVs have their own cranes which can help load cargo at ports without proper shore cranes/facilities.
• MPVs have tweendeck panels, so cargo can be stored both inside the ship's hull and on the main deck, which is different from a container vessel.
• MPVs can make inducement calls and can accept cargo to and from destinations outside usual services, according to its customers' projects.
Other types of MPV cargo include rigs and other oil and gas equipment, windmills, timber, cocoa and other commodities.
Source: Safmarine / maritimedanmark.dk
