Saturday, December 4, 2010

10th New Container/Bulk Freight Carrier For German Group

MPC Will Take Up Long Term Charter
Shipping News Feature

GERMANY – CHINA – SOUTH KOREA – Last month saw the Rickmers Group take delivery of the MV Rickmers Masan, its tenth multi-purpose carrier (MPC). Built at the Jingling yard in China, the new vessel is the first in a series of four Superflex Heavy MPC vessels that are being long-term chartered to shipping line Hyundai Merchant Marine for an eight year period. They will operate a new HMM service linking the Far East with the Middle East. MPC’s are a popular choice for the German owners with the versatility associated with a ship capable of handling both containers and bulk and project cargoes.

At just over 190m in length and with a deadweight capacity of 30,000 tonnes, the Rickmers Masan is similar to the Rickmers fleet’s Hamburg class ships, a type of vessel that has been deployed with enormous success in Rickmers-Linie’s Round-The-World Pearl String Service since 2002. She is equipped with two 320-tonne cranes capable of twinning for a maximum load of 640 tonnes.

Rickmers expressed their delight in the development of their relationship with the subsidiary of the Korean Hyundai group saying that this latest deal ‘agreement is a renewed expression of the successful cooperation that has linked the two companies for some considerable time’.