Contents - Ocean General Maritime Agencies Ltd

XXXXXXXXXXX Editorial
Contents
3 Naming ceremony of
“Eurocargo Livorno” and
launch of “Eurocargo Bari”
4 ACL orders giant CONRO ships
6 Grimaldi launches the new
Savona-Barcelona-Valencia line
7 MEX Service further
strengthened
The Grimaldi Group invests
30 million euros in equipment fleet
8 ACL awarded as American
Honda Top Supplier
9 News
10 Agents List
11 Schedules
- Mediterranean Short Sea Network
- Finnlines (Baltic & North Sea)
- Atlantic Network
- ACL
- Euro Med Network
Gr imaldi
NE WS
Direttore Responsabile / Editor in Chief
Luciano Bosso
Progetto grafico /Graphic design
Marco Di Lorenzo
Pubblicazione trimestrale
Quarterly publication
Reg. Trib. Napoli n. 5150 del 26/9/2000
Stampa / Print: ROSSI srl - Nola (Napoli)
Circulation 35,000 copies
Printed on 31/08/2012
GRIMALDI GROUP
Via Marchese Campodisola, 13
2 GNE WS80133
NAPOLI (Italy)
Grimaldi News can be seen on
line on www.grimaldi.napoli.it
Innovation the path
to the future at Grimaldi
INNOVATION has long been one of the hallmarks of our operations at Grimaldi, and our eagerness
to seek out fresh responses to new challenges has been fundamental to our ability to meet
our customers’ needs.
You see it in the frequent imaginative additions to our network – and you can read about our enhanced
services between Italy and Spain, and on our Mediterranean-West Africa routings, in this
issue of Grimaldi News – and in the opening up of trades that actively foster growth in vibrant
new markets such as Russia.
You also see it in the ships that are the engines of our success. We have invested heavily over
recent years to build a fleet that is young, flexible and responsive to the challenges of a new era
of trade: our ro-ro vessel Eurocargo Livorno, just delivered by Hyundai Mipo and showcased in
this issue, is only the latest example.
At a time when environmental and economic sustainability have become mutually dependent as
never before, we are also working to craft innovative ship designs that are responsive to the trust
society invests in us as shipowners and citizens.
In this Grimaldi News, you will find fascinating evidence of how deep that commitment to innovation
goes in the shape of the five new vessels just ordered by ACL, our US-based daughter
company.
ACL’s successful transatlantic business is currently handled by five loyal workhorses that are
coming to the end of their useful lives. In considering their replacement, our focus has been on
combining increased flexibility and capacity with cost-containment and a low carbon footprint. It
is a complex brief that we have addressed through innovative design.
As ACL chief executive Andy Abbott describes it, it was also “a highly collaborative process, starting
with Denmark-based International Maritime Advisors, who found a novel way around the high
ballast requirement in Con-Ro ships by placing containers fore and aft of the Ro-Ro cargo stored
amidships. Cargo thus replaced ballast as a stabiliser, increasing capacity in the process.”
Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding, our proactive and highly professional Chinese yard, also brought
in Knud Hansen, which did sterling work in fine-tuning the design, adjusting the angles of deck
ramps and eliminating interior columns, for instance, to increase storage capacity and relocating
wiring and valves to a conduit along the keel to ease access and free up space elsewhere.
The result is a vessel that will have more than twice the container capacity of its predecessors -
3,800 teus, compared with 1,850 teus – and substantial increases in car capacity – 1,307 compared
with 1,000 – and Ro-Ro capacity - 764 units compared with 525. The capacity increase
for high-and-heavy cargo will also be dramatic.
What is more, the running costs of these fourth-generation ships will be much improved on the
current fleet, with fuel efficiency doubling from 41 teus per ton of fuel to 82 teus, even as their
cruising speed increases.
We expect big things of these new vessels when they are delivered in 2015. Andy Abbott tells
me that pent-up demand from our highly specialised customers could push their allocation to a
weekly 2,500 teus per ship. He also believes that the forest products trade through the US South
Atlantic ports, where ACL presently has no call, could add another 300 teus. And other transatlantic
opportunities abound: we are looking at potential calls in Liverpool and Gothenburg, and
additional connections to Scotland and Ireland.
In summation, we are confident that these powerful new thoroughbreds will push ACL far up the
league table of transatlantic shipping companies while maintaining the healthy profit margins
it has managed with the dray-horses it employs today. We are also convinced that, once again,
Grimaldi’s focus on innovation will only improve the service we offer our customers.