Danish shipping group A.P. Moller Maersk has released details of the direction being taken by subsidiary Safmarine which it believes will open up an expanding market between Asia and Africa. With the recent delivery of the MV Safmarine Samba, the first of the six new Multi Purpose Vessels (MPV’s) that it ordered in August 2008, Safmarine saw the delivery of the first MPV to join its fleet since it became part of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group in 1999.
The structure and design of an MPV means it can load and offload in smaller ports by using its own on board cranes and utilise tween deck panels to construct separate stowage areas for under and on deck loading meaning both general cargo and box traffic can be loaded simultaneously.