Damen Shipyards announced that it launched the first of its newly designed Stan Pontoon (SPo) 12032. The SPo 12032 is the longest pontoon ever built by Damen and part of a series of 34 pontoons currently being built. In addition, Damen Pontoons & Barges has started building a second new design: the Damen Crane Barge (CBa) 6324, a transshipment barge for handling dry bulk and container operations.
The 120 m x 32.2 m Stan Pontoon was launched at Jiangsu Ganghua Shipyard, one of Damen’s Chinese partner yards. With a deck strength of 20 t/sq. m., its heavy duty deck is suitable for heavy RoRo operations. The pontoon’s ballast system includes Econosto valves and Azcue pumps. Furthermore, the SPo 12032 is equipped with two DMT-winches, a Van der Leun electrical system (incl. a Caterpillar generating set), an International Paint system and it is classified under Lloyd’s Register. Together with 16 smaller pontoons (varying between 41 x 13 m – 91 x 27 m), the new pontoon will arrive in the Netherlands in September 2012 on a semi-submersible vessel.
New Damen Crane Barge
Damen’s newly designed crane barge is called the CBa 6324. It’s a shallow draft transshipment barge (optionally self-propelled) able to on- and offload ship-to-ship and ship-to-quay and vice versa. The CBa 6324 (i.e. 63m x 23,5m) is outfitted with a Liebherr CBG 350 crane with a grab load capacity of 35 t @ 12-36m and a hook load capacity of 45 ton @ 12-36m. The average throughput will be around 20.000 T a day. There’s accommodation for 12 crew, incl. a pantry, a change room, an office and of course cabins. Several of these new transshipment barges are currently being built, with the first ready for delivery in November 2012 (The Netherlands) and the second in December (China). Crane Barges 3 and 4 will be available in Q1-2013.