Italian shipping company the Grimaldi Group recently took delivery of a new Con-Ro vessel built by HD Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) of South Korea. Great Casablanca is the fifth in a series of six that also includes Great Abidjan (pictured), which was handed over to Grimaldi earlier this year.
The new Con-Ro vessels built by HMD boast double the container capacity while retaining similar rolling freight capacities of an earlier ship series in the Grimaldi fleet.
The 45,684DWT Great Casablanca measures 250 by 38 metres and can accommodate up to 4,700 lane metres of freight and 2,000 TEUs. Cold ironing and hybrid exhaust gas aftertreatment systems will help reduce the vessel's environmental impact, though the main and auxiliary diesel engines are already IMO Tier III-compliant.
Other notable features are variable frequency drives for helping reduce electrical consumption and low-friction paint for minimising hull resistance.
Great Casablanca and its five sisters will be operated on Grimaldi's routes between Northern Europe and West Africa.