At a cost of approximately $60 million per vessel, m/v HUAL Seoul is the 4th ship of HUAL's new building program to call at the Port of Wilmington over the past year. Hual is planning to add 14 new ships to its fleet through 2007. "The addition of m/v HUAL Seoul to our fleet will complement the first class service that HUAL provides to its customers, and will enable us to meet the growing demand of auto and RoRo exporters via the Port of Wilmington to the Middle-East and other destinations," said Roy Winograd, vice president, marketing, HUAL North America, Inc.
The arrival of the m/v HUAL Seoul in Wilmington, the Mid-Atlantic export hub for General Motors (GM), highlights a 30-year relationship between the Port of Wilmington and HUAL. "Wilmington's skilled workforce, excellent transportation infrastructure, and its dedicated auto and RoRo berth on the Delaware River, which is connected by exclusive roadway to vehicle staging and processing facilities, offer a complete logistics package to automotive industry leaders such as GM and their car carrier HUAL," noted DSPC Executive Director Gene Bailey.
In 2004, HUAL made 40 port calls to Wilmington loading close to 40,000 vehicles bound to the Middle East. On her maiden voyage to Wilmington, she will load new GM vehicles, previously owned vehicles, as well as high and heavy rolling cargoes such as street sweepers, Caterpillar engines and parts destined to Dubai, Jeddah, Dammam and Kuwait.
Built by the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Heavy Machinery Ltd. shipyard at Kyung-nam, Korea, the m/v HUAL Seoul features unique multiple liftable decks for flexibility in loading cargoes of varying heights as well as a minimum deck height of 1.85 meters for increased cargo carrying capacity. Flying the Norwegian flag and capable of cruising at a speed of 20 knots, the ship is nearly 200 meters long, 32.26 meters wide and can carry up to 6,100 standard size cars.
