With an additional ship and new heavy-lift barges, the Dutch logistics company Roll Group is expanding its capacities for the project cargo business. The main focus is on Asia and the Middle East.
In addition to a fleet of special ships in the Deck Carrier, Heavylift, RoRo and FloFlo segments, the Dutch company has also been operating its own heavy-duty barges and various land-based facilities for some time. In recent years, the Roll Group has also expanded with cooperation agreements and new branches. This course is to be continued.
Two important steps have been announced in the past few days. On the one hand, two heavy-duty barges were ordered in Indonesia. The pontoons, built in accordance with DNV classification standards, are intended to “enhance Roll Group’s ability to provide integrated, customized transport solutions for complex energy and infrastructure projects in the region”, according to a statement. They are each 85.2 m long, 27.4 m wide, and have a load capacity of 9,350 t on a deck that has a heavy lift capacity of 20 t per square meter.
“The ballastable design enables optimal performance in shallow waters and makes the vessels particularly suitable for transporting heavy modules and oversized project cargo,” the Dutch company writes. Construction should be completed by the end of 2026. The Roll Group has its sights set on “Asia and the Middle East in particular”, where several projects are underway.
New deck carrier with KMC Bluewhale
The Roll Group is also expanding its fleet of large deck carriers for deep-sea transportation. Following the “Bigroll KMC Beaumont” in September last year, another charter vessel, the “Bigroll KMC Busan”, is joining the fleet as part of the cooperation with the Korean company KMC Bluewhale. The logistics company now operates ten heavy-lift vessels.
With a width of 40 m and an overall length of 166 m, the “Bigroll KMC Busan”, built in 2016 and formerly known as “Dongbang Giant No. 7”, is ideal for transporting modular cargo, according to the Netherlands. They have their sights set on large-scale projects in the oil and gas industry as well as the transportation of heavy components for renewable energy projects.
