London-based West African shipping and logistics specialist Otal Holdings has launched the first of two new container ships.
The 1,600-teu (20 ft equivalent unit) vessel - built at Hanjin Heavy Industries' Ulsan shipyard in South Korea - has been named Kindia. A sister vessel will be delivered later this year.
The launching of the 21,270 deadweight tonne Kindia underlined the group's commitment to investing in the future of the West Africa trades, said Bob Baines, Otal's group managing director.
Although the Kindia has a 1,600-teu capacity, it is likely to be able to handle only 1,200 teu due to the average heavy weights of container movements on the West Africa trades.
Implementing an innovative building process used by Hanjin's Ulsan shipyard only once before, heavy-lift cranes were employed to lower Kindia's engine and pre-fabricated accommodation block on to the vessel on the same day. These components weighed 400 and 700 tonnes respectively.
Illustrating the benefits of pre-fabrication and advanced technology, it took the yard only one hour each to lower the engine and the accommodation block into position and only several more hours to secure them.
