Christening of Rickmers Shanghai celebrated in Shanghai

Rickmers-Linie celebrated the fifth christening in its series of nine new Superflex Heavy Multi-Purpose Container (MPC) vessels on 8 November 2003 in Shanghai. Madame Zhang Xiang Lan, wife of Mr Luo Kai Fu, Chairman of the Sinotrans Group, was the godmother of Rickmers Shanghai.
Like her sisterships - to the present date seven have already been delivered to the company - Rickmers Shanghai is plying the Round-The-World Pearl String Service. The vessel, built by the Shanghai Shipyard, was delivered in March 2003 and has already demonstrated her abilities when she loaded a particularly complex heavy lift consignment for a refinery in Moji and delivered it to Philadelphia in June this year. The cargo loaded included a platforming reactor of 57 m length with a unit weight of 279 tons.
Rickmers Hamburg joined her sistership on the occasion of the naming ceremony as she happened to be on her second scheduled call to the port of Shanghai on her China/Far East rotation. The vessels call twice at Shanghai on the Pearl String Service, the first call being dedicated to discharge and the second intended for loading purposes.
Simultaneous with the christening ceremony, Rickmers Reederei, sister company of Rickmers-Linie, celebrated the naming of its container vessel, Saylemoon Rickmers. Lara Rickmers, daughter of Owner and Chairman of the Rickmers Group, Bertram Rickmers, christened the vessel. This meant three ships owned by the Rickmers Group were in port at the Jungonglu Terminal at the same time.
Rickmers Shanghai is identical to her eight sisterships, with adjustable tweendecks, a heavy-lift capacity of up to 640 tons and dehumidifying devices in all holds. Of the nine ordered vessels, Rickmers Jakarta is the next due for delivery at the end of November 2003. The new fleet will be complete when Rickmers Genoa has been handed over to Rickmers-Linie in early 2004.
The Round-The-World Pearl String Service is an innovative new concept which sails the Rickmers fleet eastbound around the world, linking Europe, Asia and North America. Regular fortnightly sailings and the reliability of the schedules published and updated online are the main benefits of this new service. It provides customers with unique flexibility by catering for project shipments that often involve complex loading programmes. The service also enables special calls at ports not normally featured on the schedule.
Regular calls are made at the ports of Hamburg, Antwerp, Genoa, Jakarta, Singapore, Map Ta Phut, Haiphong, Hong Kong and Shanghai, Dalian, Xingang, Masan, Kobe or Yokohama, Houston, New Orleans, Newport News and Camden.