Page 69: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2005)

April 2005 69

Geest North Sea Line has taken a sig- nificant step forward in its plans to expand its intermodal door-to-door capacity with the introduction into serv- ice of Geeststroom, the first of two 812

TEU containerships that were ordered in 2003 from the Damen Shipyards

Group by the German shipowner Jorg

Kopping.

More than twice the size of the largest ship in the Geest fleet, she will be employed on Geest's routes between

Rotterdam and Tilbury and Rotterdam and Hull.

Geeststroom and her sister, Geestdijk, due for delivery in April 2005, have been built specifically for long-term charter to the Dutch shortsea and inter- modal specialist.

Designed to meet Geest's particular requirement for a vessel able to carry a full load of 45 ft. pallet-wide containers or a mix of 45 footers plus heavy 20 ft. tanks and 30 ft. bulk containers, the two ships were constructed by Damen

Shipyards Galatz in Romania.

According to Wout Pronk,

Geeststroom will be used alongside other Geest ships on the Hull and

Tilbury routes until her sister ship is available. "We will make use of

Geeststroom at both Hull and Tilbury, as required, in combination with

Rotterdam, our central hub on the

Continent. We are looking for very fast turnaround times, which will require efficient operations at all terminals.

There will continue to be daily depar- tures on both services. Once we have both ships available, we may run them in tandem, either on the Hull or Tilbury routes."

Geest is totally committed to the expansion of European shortsea ship- ping and, in particular, to greater use of intermodal options including rail and inland waterway transport in Europe.

However, to be competitive with 13.6m road trailers, we have had to replace our entire container fleet with 45 ft. pal- letwide containers.

Unfortunately, no-one yet has built a containership specifically designed around the 45ft box and so any vessel we have chartered has always been a compromise. Geeststroom has changed all that.

The owner, Mr. Kopping, went into more detail regarding the new ship's design. "Geest is not only interested in 45ft containers. Many of its quay-to- quay customers are NVOs with ship- pers' owned equipment operating tanks and dry bulk units. Consequently, Geest also required a ship with a good dead- weight able to accommodate heavy 20 ft. and 30 ft. containers."

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Geest North Sea Line takes delivery of Geeststroom

New 812 TEU ships designed specifically to carry 45 ft. containers

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