News
Geest North Sea Line to add four more 812 TEU vessels to its fleet
Geest North Sea Line, is to long-term charter four more 812 TEU vessels from German owners. All are identical to Geeststroom and Geestdijk ,delivered to Geest in January and April 2005, and are being built by the Damen Shipyards Group in Romania for delivery in 2006.
The first two vessels will join the fleet in spring 2006 with the second pair following in the autumn. Geest intends employing two of the ships on its UK services while the other pair are expected to be used elsewhere in the Geest network.
According to Geest North Sea Line's Managing Director, Wout Pronk, Geeststroom and Geestdijk have been a great success:
"Geeststroom and Geestdijk are now operating between Rotterdam and Hull with occasional calls in Tilbury. Our experience so far shows them to be excellent vessels. With a service speed of 18.5 knots, they are significantly faster than our smaller ships and this has enabled us to cut transit times and improve time-keeping.
"Turn-round times have been good too. These ships are more than twice the size of our earlier vessels and we were very conscious of the risk of losing any economy of scale by spending too long in port. Because the design enables a high level of stability to be maintained during discharge and loading, we can work the vessels very rapidly with two gantry cranes.
"With six identical ships at our disposal, each able to carry up to 280 of our 45ft palletwide containers, we will gain a high degree of flexibility. Rather than have to commit specific ships to specific services, it will be simple to interchange them to suit operational needs."
Geeststroom and Geestdijk were built specifically for long-term charter to Geest, the design being developed jointly between the owner Jörg Köpping, Geest, Damen and the German shipbroker Stűwe & Co. The shipbuilder now markets the vessel as the Damen Container Feeder 800 and has secured orders for several additional ships, including the latest quartet chartered by Geest. All are being built for German owners.
Mr Pronk explains that the ships meet Geest's particular requirement for vessels able to carry a full load of 45ft pallet-wide containers or a mix of 45 footers plus heavy 20ft tanks and 30ft bulk containers:
"They are designed around 45ft modules rather than 20ft and 40ft modules and the stackweight and deadweight specifications are such that we will be able to maximise stowage of both 45ft containers and the heavy 20ft and 30ft bulk containers that we carry on behalf of our third-party customers."
