Grimaldi christens the Grande Manila, new green ship

New ship for the Grimaldi Group. The Grande Manila, a unit designed to transport cars, trucks and rolling stock, was delivered and christened yesterday in Shanghai. Commissioned from the Shanghai Waigaoqiao shipbuilding company and China shipbuilding trading company (both part of China State shipbuilding corporation), this is the seventh ammonia-ready vessel for the Neapolitan shipping company, i.e. ready to use ammonia as an alternative fuel, with zero carbon emissions.

With a length of 200 metres, a width of 38 metres, and a gross tonnage of approximately 77,500 tonnes, the Grande Manila is designed to transport vehicles (cars, SUVs, vans, and so on), both electric and traditional fuel-powered, as well as any other type of rolling cargo. In particular, it can load up to 9,241 ceu (car equivalent units), with four decks also suitable for transporting other rolling cargo, including heavy loads of up to 250 tonnes and a maximum height of 6.5 metres.

The ship, explain Grimaldi's top management, "pays tribute not only to the capital of the Philippines, but to the country's entire maritime community, for the extraordinary contribution it makes to the global shipping industry. The ship's name also reflects the growing importance of the Asian nation within the group's commercial network: after the recent launch of a new service connecting China to the port of Batangas, with two departures per month, Grimaldi aims to expand its presence also in other Philippine ports, such as Manila".

The handover ceremony of the new ship was attended, among others, by Zhang Wei, vice-president of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao shipyard, and Luigi Pacella Grimaldi, automotive intercontinental director of the Italian group. Godmother of the christening was Doris Ho, president and ceo of Magsaysay group, a leading Philippine company in the recruitment and management of maritime personnel. The group has been manning Grimaldi marine partners for ten years in a joint venture structured in the Philippines, which allows the employment of thousands of Filipino seafarers on the group's ships.

"With the arrival of the Grande Manila," says Emanuele Grimaldi, the group's CEO, "we celebrate, on the one hand, a new, important milestone in the expansion and modernisation of our fleet and, on the other, our increasingly strong link with the Philippines, a country with a great seafaring tradition. Filipino seafarers represent a fundamental resource for our fleet: professionalism, dedication and reliability are values that contribute every day to the safety and efficiency of our operations. For our part, also through our partnership with the Ho family and Magsaysay group, we reaffirm our commitment to the growth and well-being of this extraordinary human capital. At the same time, with the addition of Philippine ports to our service network, regularly operated by increasingly state-of-the-art vessels, we will further contribute to the sustainable growth of the country's economy."