Mobile Hosts Christening General Cargo Ship Star Lindesnes

The Alabama State Port Authority’s Pier B North Terminal in Mobile was the setting for the christening April 10 of a brand new Grieg Star cargo ship.

Built at the Hyundai Mipo yard in Ulsan, South Korea, and delivered on January 21, Star Lindesnes is the third in Grieg Star’s L Class, a new generation of "open hatch” general cargo ships. The L Class program includes 10 vessels for delivery during 2012-2014, as well as two new conventional Supramax bulk ships.  

"It is a pleasure to have this naming ceremony in Mobile, a port that has been very important for Star since the 1970s,” noted Tom Rasmussen, the shipping company’s Star’s president and chief operating officer for Grieg Star. "Mobile is a strategic load port in all our export services to North Europe, Mediterranean, Far East and West Coast South America and also on the import service from Brazil. We have had an excellent cooperation from the Alabama State Docks in all these years.” 

L Class vessels are equipped with four 75-ton capacity SWL electric slewing cranes with power swivel for steady cargo handling. Their unobstructed cargo holds are designed for optimal cargo stowing and handling. The open hatch design is tailor made for transportation of wood pulp and other forestry products, steel, containers and other utilized cargoes.
  

Jimmy Lyons, the port authority’s director and chief executive officer, praised Grieg Star for its 33-plus years of carriage at the port, and its "deployment of advance technology that continues to offer the highest quality service in a changing market.”

Grieg Star is part of the privately owned Grieg Group and is a fully integrated shipping company and owner of one of the world’s largest open hatch fleets. The company also operates a fleet of conventional dry bulk carriers and owns Squamish Terminals in British Columbia.

American Association of Port Authorities
Asociación Americana de Autoridades Portuarias
1201 Maryland Ave SW, Suite 860, Washington, D.C. 20024
E: info@aapa-ports.org
W: www.aapa-ports.org