Two Livestock Carriers Named in COSCO (Guangdong) Shipyard

23 August 2013

On the morning of July 23, two livestock carriers, being built in COSCO (Guangdong) Shipyard for the Dutch owner Vroon B.V., were named Galloway and Ganado Express. These are the first livestock carriers to be built in a Chinese Shipyard. COSCO (Guangdong) owns the intellectual property of the vessels. The successful construction of the vessels not only fills the gap for livestock carrier construction technology in the domestic shipbuilding industry, but also marks another breakthrough COSCO (Guangdong) has made in the special ship section. The naming ceremony saw the presence of the owner's Supervisor, Mr. Pieter Willem Vroon, General Manager Mr. Coco Vroon, Deputy General Manager Mr. Herman Marks, Bureau Veritas (BV) Senior Vice President, Mr. Claude Maillot and leaders from the Science and Technology Bureau of Dongguan City.

The two livestock carriers will be mainly used for the transport of live animals. Each vessel can accommodate about 3,000 head of cattle. The vessels are a core innovative project in Guangdong Province. They measure 134.8 metres in LOA, 19.6 metres in breadth, have a design draft of 11.3 metres and a cruising speed of 16.75 knots with 30 days of endurance ability. The net area of cattle stalls reaches 4,600 square metres. The vessels adopt a single-engine / singlepropeller propulsion system with unrestricted navigation area. Classed by BV, the overall design, construction technology, safety capabilities and fuel efficiency of the vessels have reached an advanced level in the domestic and international shipbuilding industry. The safety capabilities of the vessels meet the Australian Maritime Safety specifications. In the construction process, COSCO (Guangdong) Shipyard adheres to the green shipbuilding concept, implements green manufacturing technology; the marine gas oil (MGO) emissions are kept below 0.1%, which has great significance in the sulfur oxides (SOX) control in the shipping industry as well as for global environmental protection.

Vroon B.V. is a leading shipping company from the Netherlands, who sees its main business in special ship shipping. It owns a fleet of more than 160 vessels, covering eight vessel types including offshore engineering vessels, livestock carriers, car carriers, etc. The company has trusted COSCO (Guangdong) Shipyard with the construction of four livestock carriers and two platform supply vessels (PSVs). At the naming ceremony, the General Manager of Vroon B.V., Mr. Coco Vroon, highly praised the yard's project team for their professionalism and pursuit of excellence.

COSCO Shipyard Group Co. Ltd. press release