The arrival of AP Sveti Vlano at Port Chalmers yesterday is of very special interest. With a gross tonnage of 32,578gt it is the largest vessel to call here to load logs. The handymax bulk carrier is also the first Vietnamese-built vessel to enter this harbour.
The vessel was built at Haiphong by the Ha Long Shipbuilding Company, one of 20 yards in the country that are controlled by the Viet Nam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin).
As hull number HR-53-HL06, the ship was laid down on July 30, 2008. It was launched on April 2, 2009, for operation by Graig Shipping plc, of Cardiff, under the flag of the Bahamas. But a month before it was completed on October 26, 2009, it received its present name.
It had been acquired by Atlantska Plovidba dd, of Dubrovnik, Croatia and placed under the ownership of its Atlant Handymax Corporation. However, they flagged it away from their native Croatia to Majuro in the Marshall Islands, where it has the official number 3716.
AP Sveti Vlaho is a double-hull vessel having an overall length of 190.00m, a moulded breadth of 32.26m and a loaded draught of 12.6m. The vessel has four deck cranes, each having a SWL (safe working load) of 36 tonnes.
A six-cylinder, 12,888bhp MAN B&W diesel gives a service speed of 14.70 knots on a daily fuel consumption of 32 tonnes.
The vessel belongs to a class of 53,000dwt bulkers built by the Haiphong yard since 2007. To date 13 of them have either already entered service or will be delivered by next year. This yard has the capacity to build bulk carriers or tankers up to 75,000dwt and 3000teu container ships.
Atlantska Plovidba was last represented here when their 25,600gt, Croatian-flag Sveti Nikolai I berthed at Ravensbourne on April 16, 2004. Currently the fleet numbers 17 vessels. And following the now common trend of using the owner's initials in ship's names, AP Sveti Vlaho and Haiphong-built sister AP Sveti Drzic were the first, and currently the only two so-named units of the fleet.
And this same practice is now widely used by Christian F. Ahrenkiel Reederei, of Hamburg, with the initials AS denoting Ahrenkiel Shipping. This will be illustrated here later this week when the chartered AS Carelia calls on the Tanjung Pelepas service for MISC.
Launched as Carelia on May 1, 2006, the ship was delivered on July 5, 2006, and entered service as CMA CGM Tulip. When the charter to the French liner company ended a few weeks ago it was given its present name.
The vessel is another of the popular 2824teu vessels built at the Hyundai Mipo yard at Ulsan, South Korea. A further two were in port during the weekend, the 2005-built, Swiss-owned Maersk Jaun, a regular visitor since July 2008, and newcomer Irenes Rainbow. Incidentally, all are vessels of 28,592gt.
Owned within the Tsakos group, of Athens, by Fortune Power SA, Irenes Rainbow entered service on April 17, 2006. Before reverting to this name last year the vessel had been trading as Kota Segar from 2008. It is now serving on the same east coast North America service as Maersk Jaun.
This class of vessel has been berthing here since January, 2007, and AS Carelia will be the 15th to call. So far they have clocked up nearly 160 local appearances. Another named ER Malmo is due in mid-October.
