Ammonia-ready Grimaldi Auckland delivered

September 10, 2025, by Naida Hakirevic Prevljak

Italian shipping player Grimaldi Group has taken delivery of Grande Auckland, the second of seven ammonia-ready pure car & truck carriers ordered at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) and China Shipbuilding Trading Company (CSTC) – two companies part of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC).

The delivery ceremony took place in Shanghai on September 9, 2025.

With a length of 200 meters, a beam of 38 meters, and a gross tonnage of around 77,500 tons, the Grande Auckland has been designed for the transport of vehicles — cars, SUVs, vans, both electric and powered by traditional fuels — as well as other types of rolling cargo.

The vessel offers a loading capacity of 9,241 CEU and is equipped with four decks suitable for the transport of large rolling units, including heavy loads of up to 250 tons and a maximum height of 6.5 meters.

It features MAN B&W 7S60 ME-C10.6-HPSCR TIER II–TIER III electronic engine, ensuring one of the lowest specific fuel consumption rates in the vessel class and complying with the most stringent environmental regulations regarding CO₂, NOx, and SOx emissions.

In particular, thanks to the ship’s optimized dimensions that maximize loading capacity, a ship design, advanced technologies, and next-generation systems, the Grande Auckland significantly reduces the CO₂ emission index per transported cargo—by up to 50% compared to prvious-generation PCTC vessels, Grimaldi said.

Furthermore, the vessel has been awarded the Ammonia Ready class notation by Italian class society RINA, certifying that it can be converted in the future to use ammonia as a zero-carbon alternative fuel.

Grande Auckland is also designed for cold ironing, meaning it can be powered by shore-side electricity while docked in port — a green alternative to using traditional marine fuels, where such infrastructure is available.

The name of this new ship is a tribute to the city of Auckland, New Zealand, which since 2023 has been regularly served, on a monthly basis, by Grimaldi vessels arriving from Europe.

The Grande Auckland will make its maiden voyage on the Asia–Europe service, where it will remain deployed throughout 2025.

The vessel will depart from Shanghai and Lianyungang carrying 4,900 vehicles and 3,300 linear meters of rolling cargo and will call at Agadir and Tanger Med (Morocco), Vigo (Spain), Antwerp (Belgium), and Southampton (UK). From Northern Europe, it will head back to Asia, with calls in La Réunion (French overseas department in the Indian Ocean), then Yokohama and Toyohashi (Japan), and finally Masan (South Korea).

The Grimaldi Group has fourteen more ammonia-ready PCTC vessels on order, to be delivered between 2025 and 2027, which will further strengthen maritime connections with the Asian market.