With the inflow of specialised industrial cargo increasing across Africa, particularly out east where ongoing oil and gas exploration drives development, Norwegian roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) carrier Höegh Autoliners believes it has the kind of largeload vessel edge to meet the growing demand. According to head of sales for South Africa, William Hepplewhite, the company currently operates six of the biggest pure car and truck carriers (PCTC) in the world. Höegh’s PCTCs “have a ramp capacity of 375 metric tonnes as opposed to most of the world’s PCTC fleet, with ramps that cater for 100-150 metric tonnes”. In addition, the stern ramps are 12 metres wide, enabling wider breakbulk cargo.
As for the height capability of their vessels, breakbulk loads with out-of-gauge measurements were made easier with a deck-clearing capacity of 6.5 metres, he said. Hepplewhite emphasised that because of their specialised cargo handling equipment and diversifying strategies, Höegh had moved close to six million cubic metres of inordinately large and heavy loads last year. “There are other modes of shipping out there to transport nonrolling cargoes of various shapes and forms,” he said. “But there are many advantages of using ro-ro vessels for sophisticated, high-value and often complex cargo types.” Some of these, said, Höegh’s head of global breakbulk sales, Stian Omli, was cost saving, no high lifting required and cargo protection as three core qualities characterising their service. “Höegh operates on a liner-service basis with regular ports of call.” The upshot of this, he stressed, was that there were fixed transit times between ports, allowing for an itinerary that shippers could rely on. “This is unlike other carriers that operate more in the spot market. It also means less time is spent on storage as regular and frequent services allow shippers to match dates with vessel schedules.” Using equipment tailored to operate at lower and safer clearances, hazardous high liftings of cargo can be avoided, as cargo is rolled on and off its vessels. In a bid to use the best possible roll-on roll-off method for whatever cargo they’ve been entrusted with, Höegh has a fleet of 3 300 roll-trailers of different lengths, heights and strengths. INSERT: There are many advantages of using ro-ro vessels for sophisticated, highvalue and often complex cargo types. – William Hepplewhite