ACL, an American shipping company owned by the Italian Grimaldi Group, is going to launch five new combined container/cars/ro-ro vessels starting by the end of the year.
These ships are the world’s largest in their class, and the first of them, Atlantic Star, will call at the Port of Gothenburg around December 20th, 2015.
ACL, which has been operating in Gothenburg since 1967, selected the Swedish Port of Gothenburg to welcome the first vessel of the G4 fleet this year.
Atlantic Star is a part of the ACL’s G4 Fleet, together with her sister ships Atlantic Sail, Atlantic Sea, Atlantic Sky and Atlantic Sun.
The new G4 vessels, as ACL said, will be bigger, faster, greener and more efficient than their predecessors. The G4 ships will have a container capacity of 3,800 TEUs, plus 28,900 square meters of RORO space, with a car capacity to carry 1,307 vehicles.
Launching of the first vessel will be followed by launching of another sister ship every two months until the entire current ACL fleet is replaced.
The five new ships were ordered at the Hudong Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai and they will all be in operation by the second quarter of 2016. Atlantic Cartier, Atlantic Companion, Atlantic Compass, Atlantic Concert and Atlantic Conveyor will be gradually phased out.
World Maritime News Staff; Image: ACL