The Dutch shipping company Seatrade is starting the commissioning of its new “Country” class with the new container ship “Seatrade Chile”.
“Seatrade Chile” is the first in a series of six reefer container ships that will gradually be ordered and built at the Huanghai shipyard in China. They are part of a larger transformation of the fleet[ds_preview].
The new S-bug design Bangkokmax, with a slot capacity of 1,800 TEU, has now embarked on its maiden voyage. A special feature that the shipping company attached great importance to: it has 640 refrigeration connections – significantly more than other container ships of this size – and an additional power generator for the extended refrigeration capacity.
Next Seatrade newbuildings with cranes
“Seatrade Chile”, the first ship in the series, does not yet have any cranes on board. However, from the next delivery – “Seatrade Peru” is due to arrive in September – deck cranes will be installed, as shipping company boss Yntze Buitenwerf has now confirmed in a statement.
The new freighters are to be deployed in existing own and completely new trades and will advance the transition of the Seatrade ship system from conventional reefer ships to container ships. Despite the massive expansion of the container liner shipping companies’ fleets, there are market niches for reefer container transportation in which Seatrade will be able to hold its own against the competition from the major carriers. The key to this is the so-called “FDD” concept with short transit times and direct connections between reefer-heavy ports without transshipment. The initials stand for Fast, Direct and Dedicated.
The shipping company already operates five other full container ships with capacities of around 2,250 TEU, although these are chartered out to CGA CGM. The French line deploys the freighters in a reefer container service between Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
