Technical milestone for AAL Shipping: The heavy-lifter “AAL Hamburg” delivered 16 stacked barges to Uruguay. The “Super B class” equipment paid off.
The heavy-lifter “AAL Hamburg” recently delivered 16 barges from Brazil to Uruguay in just one trip. The total volume amounted to 80,000 tons. AAL Shipping called the transport “one of the most complex technical operations” in the history of the shipping company. It is planning a regular MPP service in the South America region.
The barges will primarily operate for local mining companies and deliver iron and manganese ore from Brazil to Uruguay. They are intended to significantly increase the capacity for environmentally friendly transportation of bulk goods. The minerals will be transported over 2,500 km along the Paraguay-Paraná waterway, an important link between Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and the Atlantic Ocean. Mining is one of the most important economic sectors in the region.
Each barge is 61 m long and weighs between 380 and 400 tons. The total of 16 ships were loaded and stacked over several days in a transverse, four-tier formation on the “AAL Hamburg”. There was a 15 m overhang to each side of the “32,000 dwt Super B class” ship from AAL Shipping. “Although challenging to implement, this unique formation allowed the vessel to carry 16 barges on a single voyage (14 on deck and 2 in the hold) – a volume previously impossible with other vessel types or conventional multipurpose loading methods,” the shipping company said. The retractable deck extension system “Eco-Deck” proved to be particularly valuable for the order.
“Major stability challenges”
“The significant cargo overhang on both the starboard and port sides created major stability challenges along the 3,400 km ocean passage between Northern Brazil and Uruguay,” said Yahaya Sanusi, Deputy Head at AAL Engineering. “We spent many weeks developing a safe and efficient solution to meet the client’s objectives – and delivered it through, forward thinking engineering, and close collaboration between AAL and the wider supply-chain. The AAL HAMBURG proved self-sustaining, using her own 700-tonne max-lift cranes to avoid costly and hard-to-source floating cranes and helping to deliver optimum operational efficiency, and safety throughout.”
“This project has pushed boundaries, and we are immensely proud of what has been achieved,” added Eugene Nutovych, Senior Chartering Manager AAL Americas. “It has provided valuable experience and insights not only for AAL, but all our supply chain partners involved – hugely important to the successful delivery of future project demands.”
Delivered in 2024, the “AAL Hamburg” is 180 m long, 30 m wide and has a ballast draught of 6.5 m. Like its sister ships in the “Super B Class”, it can transport up to 80,000 tons. The weather deck offers a free loading area of 4,500 m², 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 as well as a range of 35.7 m, are to enable the loading of the fore and aft ship in order to optimize the storage space and stowage time. The ship transported fully assembled harbor cranes from the Netherlands to South America in May.
