The latest vessels to benefit from MacGREGOR's hatch covers and Flexipads are a container ship series for P&O Nedlloyd and one for Hamburg Sued: both series are being built at South Korean yards, and highlight MacGREGOR's hatch cover innovations and continuous development

MacGREGOR has won a contract to design the hatch covers, and to supply key components including Flexipad bearing pads, for a series of nine 2,550 TEU container ships being built at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea. The Group's Hatch Cover division has also secured a similar contract for hatch covers and MacGREGOR's new larger-sized Flexipads for a series of six 4,000 TEU post-panamax container ships currently under construction at Daewoo Marine & Shipbuilding Engineering.

The nine 2,550 TEU vessels are scheduled for delivery late in 2003 to mid-2004, and represent the first contract for P&O Nedlloyd's ship management company - Reederei Blue Star GmbH - based in Hamburg, and are owned by German KG private investors.

MacGREGOR's crane-operated lift-away cover sets will be provided on the weatherdeck, some 29 panels arranged to serve the ten hatches. Twin panels specified for No 1 hatch (forward) will yield a clear opening 12.6m long x 15.36m/10.32m wide; triple panels for No 1 hatch (aft) will give a clear opening 12.6m x 20.4m/15.36m; triple panels for No 2 hatch (forward) will offer a clear opening 12.6m x 25.72m/20.4m; and triple-panel sets for each of the remaining hatches (No 2 aft to No 5 aft) will provide 12.6m x 25.72m openings.

The orders for six 4,000 TEU post-panamax container ships destined for Hamburg Sued comes from MacGREGOR's long and fruitful relationship with Daewoo Marine & Shipbuilding Engineering. Crane-operated lift-away cover sets will be supplied for the 15 weatherdeck hatches, the 40-panel package comprising: twin panels for Nos 1 and 2 hatches (giving respective clear openings 12.6m long x 20.57m wide and 12.6m x 25.61m); triple panels for No 3 hatch, giving a clear opening 12.6m x 30.65m; and triple panels for Nos 4 - 13 and 15 hatches, giving clear openings 12.6m x 35.69m. The cover sets for the first five hatches will be weathertight and the remaining cover sets non-weathertight.

Flexipads offer shipowners significant long-term cost benefits from reduced wear to hatch cover components. They retain all horizontal movement within the pad itself, thereby eliminating wear between the pad and its counter surface. Flexipads exploit a sandwich construction of alternate laminates of rubber and steel bonded together, ensuring that forces applied to the pad are distributed more evenly than with other bearing pad types. They also guarantee that the designed distance between covers and coamings is maintained at all times, thus eliminating over-compression in the packing. MacGREGOR's new larger Flexipads enables the company to supply to vessels up to post-panamax size.