PRESS RELEASE – The AAL Kembla recently set sail from Rotterdam to Shanghai loaded with 15,000 tonnes of breakbulk and steel commodity cargoes, including private yachts, a mobile harbour crane, 16 power transformers, a dredger and four giant circular baskets with an average circumference of just under 52 metres. 

“The cargo carried on this voyage serviced over 30 shippers and upwards of 10 multiple industry projects along the route, including wind energy, infrastructure, oil and gas and mining projects”, says AAL’s general manager for Europe, Eike Muentz.

Amid the larger items were also smaller cargoes, with the smallest one weighing just 1.8 tonnes and measuring 2.5 cubic metres in size. According to AAL, the volume and wide range of cargo types featured on this voyage illustrates the growing dependency upon a breakbulk-style of shipping from global shippers. These customers would normally put their smaller breakbulk and steel commodity cargoes into containers but can’t due to the current climate of increased costs and limited capacity.

“Even with significant COVID restrictions, unparalleled port delays and cargo readiness issues, AAL’s monthly liner service between Europe and Asia has thrown a lifeline to all types of shippers and all sizes of parcel”, says Muentz.

AAL’s owned fleet of heavy lift multipurpose vessels has grown by 117,600 dwt in the past eight weeks. This brings the carrier’s operating fleet to a total of 711,200 dwt and comprises multiple vessel sizes, with 14 of these featuring a maximum lifting capacity of 700 t and many of the larger ‘mega-size’ vessels offering up to 40,000 cbm cargo intake volumes. The fleet serves AAL’s growing portfolio of multipurpose cargo services, which includes monthly sailings on the ‘Asia – Americas’, ‘Asia – Europe’ and ‘Atlantic’ trade routes, scheduled liner services ‘Asia – Australia’, and ‘Europe – Middle East / India – Asia’ and additional tramp solutions around the world.