“Carlos Fischer”:
Juice for the World

The world’s largest vessel for fruit juice was completed by Kleven Florø AS for the Fischer group in August 2002, named “Carlos Fischer” after the founder of this Brazilian agriculture producer.
The vessel was ordered in April 2000 by Amlux Corp, a Curaçao-based subsidiary of the Fischer Group, for the transportation of orange and apple juice from Brazil to the market. She was another step towards scale economies with a capacity of 32,000 cbm, designed for carrying fresh as well as concentrated juice, in addition to containers on deck. “Carlos Fischer” was built as a large refrigerated carrier, not really a tanker, of Panamax beam with a total capacity of 42,500 DWT. Her four insulated holds are each fitted with four free-standing cylindrical tanks, each of 2,000 cbm, made in stainless steel with full stainless pipelines, pumps and valves. The entire cargo system has been finished to A-septic standards, by which air is effectively kept out. Normally fruit juice is carried concentrated in frozen configuration, at a temperature of -10 degrees C.

Represents innovation
In this respect“Carlos Fischer” represents innovation as she can also carry juice in a fresh natural quality, chilled to 0.5 degrees C. Three of her holds are laid out for dual frozen or chilled cargo treatment, whereas the aft hold is to be reserved for fresh juice.
Kleven Florø, a yard in the Kleven Maritime group, has a long series of 37,500 DWT stainless steel chemical carriers to its credit, but has also built two juice carriers for these owners in 1993/94, “Ouro do Brasil” and “Sol do Brasil” of 18,600 DWT.
With larger vessels, the Florø yard had for the first time the hulls subcontracted to Daewoo Mangalia in Romania. This helped to keep the building costs down, and at the same time ensured that the yard’s expertize in stainless steel work was fully applied in the fitting of the cargo system. The design was made by the yard in cooperation with the owners, supported by Marintek for tank testing.
“Carlos Fischer” has easily become Kleven Florø’s largest vessel, some 20 meters longer than the standard chemical carriers. A sister vessel is to be delivered to Amlux in August 2003, named “Premium do Brasil”.
Good speed and performance is needed for such an expensive cargo, and the vessel is fitted with a 38,200 bhp main engine by Wärtsilä Sulzer, giving a trials speed of 20.8 knots.

The juice trade
Named for the founder,“Carlos Fischer” was built for the fully-integrated Grupo Fischer which is one of the largest private corporations in Brazil. It was started by the German-born Carl Fischer in the 1930s and has developed with fruit growing and processing, cattle and lumber. The subsidiary Citrosuco first began to produce orange juice in 1963 and has later built up an export trade to USA, Europe and Japan. Another subsidiary, Fischer Fraiburgo, also produces apple juice, where it takes 100,000 tons of apples to produce 14,000 tons of juice.
As a shipping trade, the juice transport is fully integrated in the producers’ business, from the processing plants through storage tanks, ships and import/distribution facilities and tank trucks. Great effort is taken to keep high sanitary standards and avoid contamination. There is a number of juice producers, of which Fischer is the largest in South America.
Fischer’s shipping operation is based on Santos, shipping quantities to Wilmington on the US East Coast, to Ghent in Belgium and to Japan. From initially exporting by containers, two 1970-built reefers were converted in the 1980s for the trade, owned through Amlux Corporation and with Maritime Services Aleuropa GmbH in Hamburg as managers. This has lead to the first newbuildings in 1993/94 and to today’s larger and faster vessels.

//Dag Bakka Jr

Latest update 18-10-2006 8:49

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