Month: October 2019

Additional W-Class vessels join AAL’s fleet, representing 133,000 dwt / 156,000 cbm of additional capacity for its customers and further differentiating the carrier’s niche project cargo offering and strong position within the MPP sector.

Specialist breakbulk and project heavy lift carrier AAL is expanding its multipurpose fleet with the addition of a number of modern and highly adaptive Warnow-Class (W-Class) 33,271 dwt ‘mega-size’ vessels.  Representing 133,000 dwt / 156,000 cbm of additional capacity for AAL’s customers, the new vessels boost AAL’s operating tonnage to just shy of 740,000 dwt (excluding short term time charters) and strengthen its unique global customer offering and position as one of the sector’s largest and most service-driven carriers.

The vessels, four in total, will join AAL’s fleet from October and, alongside additional W-Class tonnage already employed in the fleet and multiple other MPV classes, they will boost the carrier’s global coverage, providing additional capacity on such important trades as: Asia – Australia; Asia – Middle East –  Europe; and Asia – North America.

Large, modern and highly flexible, the W-Class perfectly complements AAL’s fleet mix strategy and its customers’ needs with their ability to accommodate multiple cargo types simultaneously – project cargo, breakbulk and dry bulk commodities – with five cargo holds (three with tweendecks) and a significant individual cargo in-take of 39,000 cbm.

This latest fleet expansion news comes on the eve of AAL’s 25-year anniversary and is a clear statement of intent to further strengthen its global trade coverage and already renowned niche market positioning, adding to its already varied fleet profile with ‘mega-size’ tonnage that offers shippers significant cargo intake volumes and economies of scale on every sailing.

AAL’s Managing Director Kyriacos Panayides explained, ‘We’ve invested heavily in developing a global infrastructure, differentiated modern fleet profile and team of professionals worldwide – experts in chartering, commercial support, operations and engineering – that can put us in pole position over other carriers to deliver on the demands of today’s global project industry.

‘Despite being in a position to cater for the long or short-term employment demands of any major project worldwide, we retain an appetite for further sustainable growth and to ensure that our service remains competitive and differentiated at every level of our operations.’

September 10, 2019: AAL, one of the world’s largest and most trusted breakbulk and project heavy lift operators, has selected SEDNA as its company-wide email solution and team collaboration platform. By adopting SEDNA, AAL has consolidated multiple systems into a single, cloud-based technology and migrated the innovative system across its entire office network in Asia, Europe, Americas, Oceania and Middle East.

A global service provider with 25 years’ experience, AAL recognises that people are its most important asset and that clear and efficient communication between stakeholders is critical. The company has a mandate to leverage modern hardware, advanced systems and innovative technology wherever required to help meet customer demand and achieve its corporate vision.

Christophe Grammare, AAL’s Commercial Director explained, “Before SEDNA, AAL operated multiple platforms to deal with incoming email and convert cargo enquiries into processable data. We were using two email systems concurrently and an on-premise solution that was proving inefficient in keeping-up with our growth curve and volume of inquiries we were handling daily.”

He added, “We were in the market for a single collaborative email solution and became aware of SEDNA, knowing other industry stakeholders already using the system. We wanted a harmonised and adaptable cloud-based system that could process and archive large quantities of email in an efficient, organised manner and help us optimise our customer response times and overall service efficiency.”

Grammare highlighted three features that set SEDNA apart, “The first, is the system’s ability to share email and related data between teams without individuals having to physically forward anything. The second, is that it automatically tracks and displays who’s read and commented on an email – significantly improving transparency within a fast-moving group email environment.  The third, is its email tagging algorithm – tailormade for AAL – that enables immediate identification, fast processing and retrieval of email.”

Dan James, Product Director at SEDNA, emphasised the company’s focus on developing a platform that helps teams work better together. “In our experience, Chartering and Operations teams find traditional email systems lack the functionality and processing capability to efficiently distill and disseminate large volumes of data to complete tasks or provide deeper insights into the performance of individuals. Our goal is to provide a solution that enables teams within large global organisations like AAL to stay connected and optimise their productivity.”

Mr. Grammare concluded, “AAL is the multipurpose sector’s most awarded carrier and a focus on service quality at every level of the organisation is what sets us apart. In SEDNA, we’ve found a partner that shares that philosophy and have been impressed by its ability to adapt and develop in response to our demands.”