The Chinese-Polish joint stock shipping company, Chipolbrok, has expanded its fleet with a multipurpose vessel built at the Chengxi Shipyard in China. The first addition in a series of four, Tai Xing, is set for its maiden voyage from Penglai in China to Puerto Bolivar in Ecuador, as it takes on a full load of wind turbine components. 

The vessels with a 61,700 DWT capacity are dubbed as the largest in the world within their class. Each vessel in the series will have a cargo hold of 75,000 cubic meters and a deck space of 5,000 square metres, fit for project cargo.

Vessels design was created by Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute.

The newbuilding orders had been handed in April 2020, welding of the first parts has been completed in November 2020, while the official keel laying happened in May 2021. The vessel was completed in June 2021 before setting off for sea trials in July 2021 and delivery ceremony to owners on December 6, 2021.

Chipolbrok informs Tai Xing will set off from the Chinese port on December 20 for its maiden voyage. The following three ships of identical size and type will be named Herbert, followed by Pilecki and Yong Xing.

The last three ships described will be delivered in 2022 to Chipolbrok for immediate employments out of Asia with a main focus on America trades. This additional modern tonnage will increase our potential for carrying huge volumes of capacious project cargoes, including oversized and heavy units as well as much bigger lots of bulk and semi-bulk commodities.

At the end of 2022 the Chipolbrok fleet will then consist of 10 so called Orkan-type vessels, four Pacific-type vessels plus the four newbuildings. The fleet is reinforced by four long-term chartered Trader-type vessels which makes in total roughly 807,000 DWT of capacity.

As noted in an interview with Project Cargo Journal, the company is looking into options to add further suitable
tonnage to its fleet as required.