ACL names its new fleet

Atlantic Container Lines expects delivery of new ships starting next summer.    Atlantic Container Line said that it has chosen names for its new fleet of container/roll-on, roll-off ships due for delivery next year.
   The transatlantic carrier said the new G4 (fourth generation) ships in its fleet will be named Atlantic Star, Atlantic Sail, Atlantic Sea, Atlantic Sky and Atlantic Sun.
   The company held a contest among employees to name the ships, and the winning names were submitted by Andrea Cox, a customer service representative at ACL’s Halifax Customer Service Center.
   Andrea said she chose the names based on her daily experience with customers, saying they “like simple names to make it quick and easy when making a vessel inquiry or a booking.”
   As the contest winner, Andrea will attend one of the ceremonies when the ship is launched in Shanghai next summer at Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding’s new ship construction facility on Chungxing Island near Shanghai.
   ACL said that construction is progressing on the ships, with one delivered every other month beginning next summer, until the entire fleet is replaced.
   The ships have a container capacity of 3,800 TEUs plus 28,900 square meters of ro-ro space, with a car capacity of 1,307. 
   Part of Italy’s Grimaldi Group, Westfield, N.J.-baed ACL offers five transatlantic sailings each week and also markets the Grimaldi Lines direct container/ro-ro service between the U.S. and West Africa. It also offers service for non‐containerizable cargo from North America to Asia, the Baltic, Mediterranean, Middle East, Oceania, South America, and East and South Africa.