THE SUPER B-CLASS: Building the ships of the future

The design of the Super B-Class fleet - AAL Shipping’s third generation newbuilding programme - has been optimised to support the future needs of the industrial project, heavy lift sector. The vessels can transport up to 90,000 freight tons of project and breakbulk cargo; are equipped with three port side cranes; feature an accommodation block placed at the fore of the vessel for improved visibility when carrying over-dimensional cargoes; and is fitted with AAL’s retractable weather deck extension system, the ‘AAL ECO-DECK’, that boosts its clear deck space to 5,200 m2.
That design is the culmination of decades of collaboration between parent organisation Schoeller Holdings, AAL, Columbia Shipmanagement (CSM), SDARI and the CSSC Huangpu-Wenchong Shipyard, as detailed in interviews with Schoeller Holding’s Founder and Chairman Heinrich Schoeller and AAL CEO Kyriacos Panayides.