This month the MV Atlantic Concert, one of the world's largest ConRo vessels, called at the Port of Hamburg for the very first time. To mark the occasion, in a formal ceremony Port Captain J'rg Pollmann and Hafen Hamburg Marketing Board member Dr. J'rgen Sorgenfrei handed over the plaque featuring the admiralty coat-of-arms of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg to Captain Klemens Norman and Thorsten Becker, Managing Director of ACL for Germany. As a result, the shipping company ' which had called at Bremerhaven in the past ' officially switched to Hamburg. The ships of the Atlantic Container Line (ACL) are handled and cleared weekly at the Terminal O'Swaldkai, Shed 48, operated by the company Unikai Lagerei und Speditionsgesellschaft mbH. This is where the existing services of the Grimaldi Group are also being processed.

ACL has had over 40 years' experience in the North Atlantic trade. By choosing Hamburg, ACL expects to benefit from the synergies deriving from closer cooperation with its parent company, the Grimaldi Group.

Concentrating the activities at the Unikai terminal will result in more and better connections to the existing deep-sea routes operated within the group, and the measure will also an improved ability to cope with the growth in the transshipment business.

The switch to Hamburg will allow ACL to maintain the high quality of its services and to further improve on the reliability and efficiency for which the company is renowned.

The new weekly container and ro/ro (ConRo) services will arrive at Hamburg's Unikai terminal on Fridays. The ports of destination in North America are Halifax, New York, Baltimore and Portsmouth. In Europe, the scheduled service calls at Liverpool, Antwerp, Hamburg and Gothenburg. The company's German clientele will continue to be taken care of by the proven ACL Customer Service Team located in the Hafencity district.

ACL's five identical ConRo ships are among the biggest of their kind in the world.

Some 1900 teu can be stowed on and below deck; in addition, up to 3,300 lane meters are available for heavy and project cargo loaded on trailers below deck, as well as space for 2.000 automobiles on five car decks. A stern ramp with a load capacity up to 420 t allows vehicles and trailers to be loaded and unloaded simultaneously.

ACL, a company belonging to the Grimaldi Group based in Naples (Italy), is a carrier specializing in the transportation of containers, project and high and heavy cargo as well as all types of vehicles. ACL is a Swedish shipping company headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey (USA). ACL branches are located in North America and Europe. In addition to the four weekly trans -Atlantic departures, ACL also operates ConRo units between North America and West Africa. The company also provides facilities for loading oversized and heavy cargo in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and South America.