Between February and July 2022, AAL Shipping (AAL) is operating a series of shipments between several ports in China and Brisbane, Australia, to transport heavy lift and project cargo components for the 181MW Dulacca Wind Farm planned for development in Queensland, Australia – a plant expected to generate enough clean energy to power approximately 124,000 homes in the region.

Employed by multiple global logistics companies to manage the ocean transportation for some of the Wind Farm’s largest components, AAL’s shipments will comprise 43 Vestas wind turbines (towers and blades), transformers, and electrical cables – a total of close to 375,000 freight tons (FRT) of cargo.

Marco Wendt, Chartering Manager, AAL Europe, and spearheading AAL’s global wind cargo movements, revealed AAL has been working closely with Vestas and its appointed logistics partners for a number of years, serving many of its wind farm projects around the world on both a long and short-term employment basis adding that It was a privilege to have this position of trust on such important projects and the successful and safe delivery of customer’s cargo is a key objective for AAL and the teams worldwide.

Andrew Mangan, Chartering Manager, AAL, and coordinating the sailings into Australia from the carrier’s Singapore Headquarters, revealed that the shipments into Brisbane for Dulacca are being loaded from several Chinese ports including Tianjin, Taicang and Yangzhou and they are working with multiple logistics companies in their execution, each with their own specific timeline and cargo requirements. Which led them to therefore decide to utilize two different vessel classes on the project, ‘mega-size’ 31,000 deadweight (DWT) A-Class and the more compact 19,000 DWT S-Class to manage both large and small shipment sizes with as much efficiency and economy of scale for customers as possible.

The 181MW Dulacca Wind Farm is located between Dulacca and Drillham in the Western Downs Region of Queensland and will be powered by 43 Vestas wind turbines of 4.2MW rated capacity each. It will generate enough clean energy to power 124,000 homes and inject over AUD400m into the local economy.

The award of this project is a welcome recognition of AAL’s long-standing ‘Asia – Australia’ trade lane and expertise, which has served customers with a regular scheduled service for over 26 years.