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Port
of Wilmington Welcomes M/V Luzon Strait Wilmington, Delaware - Port of Wilmington staff, Seatrade Reefer Chartering USA, C&S Shipping representatives and importers of Australian frozen beef will celebrate the arrival of M/V Luzon Strait, on her maiden voyage to Wilmington on Thursday, November 7th, 2002. M/V Luzon Strait is a newly built state-of-the-art, break-bulk reefer vessel. It has been chartered by C&S Shipping of Brisbane, Australia to carry Australian frozen beef serving U.S. importers on the U.S. East Coast and throughout the Mid-West. The employment of this very capable vessel demonstrates C&S’s continuing commitment to the trade and its customers, both in Australia and the U.S. The M/V Luzon Strait was built along with its sister ship, the M/V Lombok Strait, in the CSBC shipyard in Taiwan for Seatrade Groningen B.V. and was commissioned in August 2002. The new 626,010 cbft / 7340 sqm vessel has an under deck capacity for 5600 standard pallets plus on deck space for 220 x 40’ containers, with 200 reefer plugs. She is designed to provide unique flexibility during handling of perishable cargo by enabling access to the cargo holds via four side doors. Pallet cages/trolleys with capacity for 8 pallets each (12,5 mt payload) can reach any of the decks. The cargo operation is fully weatherproof, thereby ensuring both problem free discharge of the cargo and on-time delivery. The M/V Luzon Strait is fully self-sustained for container operations with handling gear that includes two 45 mt SWL cranes, and full deck storage space for containers. With a Hyundai-MAN B&W main engine delivering 21,490 BHP, the vessel has a service speed of 21.5 knots, enabling her to maintain tight schedules. During her current voyage, the M/V Luzon Strait loaded cargo in Townsville, Mackay, Port Alma, and Brisbane in Australia, and discharged beef at the Port of Corpus Christi, TX prior to coming to Wilmington. In Wilmington, she will discharge nearly 3,000 pallets or approximately 6,000 tons of Australian frozen beef for the U.S. and Canadian markets. C&S Shipping has been delivering Australian frozen beef through the Port of Wilmington since 2000 for customers such as Swift AMS, Orleans International, Consolidated Meat Group, and Pierce Trading International, Inc. As a result of the innovative way Cold Chain Distribution Services (CCDS), the refrigerated warehouse division of the Port of Wilmington, orchestrates the discharge, storage, inspection and distribution of the Australian beef imports, the Port of Wilmington has become a leading destination for frozen and chilled cargoes, especially, frozen beef. After discharge, the meat is stored in one of the Port’s five specialized on-dock storage facilities. With over 700,000 sq. ft. and over 9 million cbft of warehouse space, the Port of Wilmington boasts the largest on-dock refrigerated and freezer capacity in the U.S. Each refrigerated warehouse is equipped with extremely accurate temperature control systems which enables temperatures to be maintained to tenth of a degree, and provide real-time temperature reports, which are archived for historical purposes. Prior to the Australian beef being distributed, it is carefully inspected in the Port’s meat inspection facility by two full-time U.S. Department of Agriculture – Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) inspectors. This enables the beef to quickly leave the Port’s warehouses in refrigerated trucks in-route to the customers after having fully passed the stringent USDA meat inspection protocol. The Port’s in-houses technical support group, First State Innovations (FSI) supports the refrigerated warehousing operations by providing the importers with real-time cargo inventory information and the ability to send truck loading orders to the terminal over its web-based proprietary systems, “E-port” and “E-loads”.
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For
further information, digital photos, free tours of the Port and free
speakers contact: Vered Nohi-Becker, Marketing Services Manager
at the Port of Wilmington
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