Africa, Asia and South America are project hot-spots

THE DEMAND for large and complex project cargo shipments has been very strong in the past year, according to Bremen-based Beluga Shipping To meet this demand the project cargo specialist deployed 12 new multipurpose heavy-lift project carriers in 2007 – with more joining the fleet in early 2008. This brings the current fleet size to 56 units – providing maximum crane capacities of up to 700-tons in tandem usage, and total vessel capacities of up to 17 000-t. Beluga Shipping’s annual volume of sales rose to Euro268-million (R3.1bn) in 2007, almost twice as much as the year before and earning the line a two-digit profit margin. About 50% of the earnings are reinvested into newbuildings, according to management. And the outlook for this year? “Worldwide there is accumulated demand for transportation specialists,” said management. “Internationally, there is only one possible way to forward giant cargo across the planetover the high seas, loaded on powerful vessels.” And the cargoes are many and varied, ranging from wind park facilities, plant modules and refinery equipment to generators, turbines, liquid nitrogen gas (LNG) cold boxes or large harbour cranes. Beluga sees the strongest growth in the booming centres of commerce in Asia, Africa or South America – with orders streaming in for project and heavy lift cargo. “The transported modules get bigger, heavier and more complex,” according to management, “with even complete plants being shipped nowadays.” The line’s market analysis shows a noticeable growth in the demand for vessels with on-board crane capacities beyond the 250-t mark. Beluga’s answer is its new P1/ P2-series vessels – currently under construction and due to be delivered from late-2008 till mid-2011. These vessels will offer stowage capacities of 20 000-t deadweight (dwt), with maximum hatch sizes of 86.65-metres x 18.50-m. Being categorised as “ice class E3”, the vessels could, for two or three months a year, travel the North-West Passage between Europe and the Far East. With the new vessels coming onstream, the line is able to claim one of the most capable on-board crane capacities in the business, with certain of the ships having one 120-t crane and two cranes of 700-t capacity each – and offering a combined lift of 1 400-t. According to the company, 16 of Beluga’s newbuildings will be units with lifting capacities ranging from 800 to 1 600-t, which equips the line to cover the demands that occur in this super-lifting market segment. Beluga Shipping has 10 international branch offices located on four continents: Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Houston (USA), São Paulo (Brazil), Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Mumbai (India), Tokyo (Japan), Singapore, London (UK) and Johannesburg (SA).