A rare refrigerated cargo ship seen at Valletta, Malta was the 2021 built 118 metre long Chinese state owned ship OCEAN STAR. She entered Grand Harbour on Wednesday 3rd August at 0623 hrs berthing at MMH Facilities, coming from Scheveningen, The Netherlands.
Said to be China’s first ultra-low temperature reefer ship she was built in Kyokuyo Shipyard in Japan, having been commissioned in May 2020 as part of a collaboration with Itochu Logistics. Compared with conventional reefer ships, which have storage temperatures of between -30 degrees and 30 degrees, OCEAN STAR can store cargoes at -55 degrees. Ultra-low temperature reefer ships are mainly used to transport and process high-end ocean catches such as tuna.
Shandong Ocean Cold Chain Development (SDOCC), part of the Chinese state-owned Shandong Shipping Corporation is active in cold chain logistics, focusing on aquatic products. The company’s collaboration with Itochu Logistics involved the establishment of a joint venture, Shandong I-Logistics, with the parties owning 70% and 30%, respectively. As Chinese shipyards lack the know-how to build ultra-low temperature reefer ships, OCEAN STAR was built in Japan.
She left Valletta last Wednesday 14th September at 1631 hrs assisted by 2 local tugs bound to Larache, Morocco and will arrive tomorrow.
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Published – Friday 16th September, 2022
