Rickmers-Linie adds new heavy-lift ship

   Rickmers-Linie said it will add a another ship to its fleet.
   The 19,100- deadweight-ton Pacific Winter, to be renamed Rickmers Chennai, is a sister ship to Baltic Winter, originally chartered in by Rickmers in December 2011, and to be renamed the Rickmers Dubai.
   The ships, built in 2012 and2011, have 800-ton lift capacity and are smaller than the 30,000-deadweight-ton ships used in Rickmers Round-The-World Pearl String Service, giving them “considerable flexibility because they can call at ports where depth of water, turning circles and berth lengths may be more restricted, the company said.
   Furthermore the verssels will have the greatest lift capability of any ship in the Rickmers fleet. Two 400-ton cranes that can be twinned to lift 800 tons are complemented by a 120-ton crane further forward.
   Ulrich Ulrichs, Rickmers-Linie’s chief operating officer and managing director, said the ships will be deployed on the company’s Europe to Middle East/India Service, and their features will be valuable because “with heavy out-of-gauge cargo, you need to get the cargo as close as possible to the ultimate destination as overland transportation is expensive and complicated. These vessels enable us to offer an increased choice in ports to our customers.” – Chris Dupin