Christening and launch of the AS VINCENTIA

In Kouan/China on 30 June 2010, the Ahrenkiel Group christened the fifth in a series of eight identical supramax bulkers by the name of AS VINCENTIA. The christening was then followed by the successful launch of the new ship with construction number TK0105.

The ship which has been built by Taizhou Kouan Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. is to be delivered on 30 September. A few days before the christening ceremony by the godmother Monika Penndorf who is a personal friend of the Ahrenkiel family, a contract was signed in Hamburg with Germanischer Lloyd (GL) to equip the whole series with the GL HullManager. Introduced in 2010, this is a new maintenance software that allows the crew to monitor and evaluate the condition of the ship's structure, tanks, holds and coatings throughout the entire lifecycle of a ship.

"The GL HullManager extends our previous Planned Maintenance System for the machinery to the whole body of the ship. As well as enhancing efficiency in the preparation and implementation of dock times, the new software will also give us simplified, consistent data management which will lead to improved quality in maintenance", is how the investment is justified by Christian Suhr, Managing Director at Ahrenkiel Shipmanagement GmbH & Co. KG. Once the test phase has been completed successfully, the GL HullManager will also be used for other parts of the Ahrenkiel fleet. The AS VINCENTIA will be one of the first ships to operate with the new maintenance software.

About Ahrenkiel Group
The Ahrenkiel Group is an international corporation operating in the fields of ship-owning and ship-management together with financial services in Hamburg (Germany), Bern (Switzerland) and Limassol (Cyprus), with further holdings and partnerships abroad. In Hamburg the Ahrenkiel has a workforce of approx. 150, with altogether around 200 employees ashore throughout the world. The fleet currently has 46 ships with approx. 1,100 crew members.