AAL Shipping (AAL), the heavy lift shipping company belonging to the Schoeller Group, is continuing to expand its fleet with the fifth newbuild in the Super B class.
The “AAL Dubai” arrives just in time for the 30th anniversary of the founding of AAL. With a deadweight tonnage of 32,000 dwt, it was built at the CSSC Huangpu Wenchong shipyard and can also be operated with methanol as fuel in the future.
The ship was named after one of the most important project cargo hubs in the Middle East, where AAL has had a regional office since 2015. “The Middle East market is becoming increasingly important for the project sector,” said Liew Teck Liong, Chief Financial Officer at AAL. In 2024 alone, contracts worth a record $264 billion were awarded – an increase of 6.5% compared to the previous year.
“AAL Dubai” – designed for a variety of cargo.
The “AAL Dubai” is designed to transport a variety of cargo, including heavy lift project equipment, breakbulk and bulk cargo. The heavylifter is 179.9 meters long, 30 meters wide and has a ballast draught of 6.5 meters, with the capacity to carry up to 80,000 freight tons of general cargo. AAL had ordered a total of eight ships in China.
The weather deck offers 4,500 square meters of open cargo space, with extendable pontoons on the starboard side of the ship to further increase the storage space on deck. Three heavy-duty cranes mounted on the port side, each with a capacity of 350 t and a tandem lifting capacity of 700 t and a reach of 35.7 m, will be used to load the fore and aft deck in order to optimize stowage space and stowage time.
The shipping company had previously put the sister ships “AAL Limassol“, “AAL Hamburg”, “AAL Houston” and “AAL Antwerp” into service, serving project cargo customers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and America. “We have now delivered more than half of our Super B class vessels,” says Liew.
Later this year, the “AAL Dammam” and then the “AAL Newcastle” and the “AAL Mumbai” will be delivered, with the last two newbuildings in the series having an increased combined crane capacity of 800 tons.
