The cabotage fleet of Hamburg Süd’s subsidiary Alianҫa has added a new container ship Bartolomeu Dias, which was christened on 14 April 2015 at the TECON Terminal in the southern-Brazilian port of Rio Grande.
The ship’s sponsor was Luciana Pereira Quartiero, spouse of Jacques Maggi Quartiero, vice president of Camil Alimentos S.A.
With a container slot capacity of around 4,800 TEU (including 600 reefer slots), the Bartolomeu Dias is the largest ship that Alianҫa has ever deployed in its Brazilian coastal service.
The ship carries the name of the Portuguese seafarer and discoverer Bartolomeu Dias, who discovered Brazil on 22 April 1500, while serving as a captain in Pedro Alvares Cabral’s fleet.
In the course of the modernisation and expansion of the cabotage fleet, four new 3,800 TEU ships set sail in 2013 and 2014, also bearing the names of discoverers significant to South America.
In the middle of the year, Alianҫa plans to christen the Vicente Pinzón, the sister ship of Bartolomeu Dias.
Eight liner services offered by the shipping group, of which two are cabotage, call in Rio Grande weekly. In addition, Alianҫa maintains two feeder services to Argentina from Rio Grande.