Seaborne livestock carriage becomes highly specialized
Friday, February 24th, 2006 - 4:17 pm
Siba Ships will add a second, giant livestock carrier able to carry 6,500 cattle or 30,000 sheep at 18 knots to its order from Malaysia’s Labroy Shipyard. Delivery of both vessels is scheduled for 2007.
Following that announcement, Siba bought the world’s largest livestock carrier, M/V Rodolfo Mata (TBR M/V Deneb), from Pan United. Originally a container vessel, it was converted into a livestock carrier by Pan United in 2002 and upgraded to make her fully compliant with latest Solas regulations, a requirement by AMSA (Australian Maritime Safety Authority) to be able to issue permits to load livestock in Australia beyond January 2007. The Deneb can carry a maximum load of 120,000 sheep or 25,000 cattle, or any combination of the two species.
Siba Ships livestock carrier Becrux carries up to 75,000 sheep or 14,000 cattle. Photo: Siba Ships
Siba Ships, which aspires to be the world’s largest livestock carrier, also handles bulk cargo from its Italian base in Brescia.
Livestock carriage is highly specialized and uses various strategies, such as storm avoidance and elaborate ventilation systems, to minimize stress to the animal passengers.
Major livestock shipping lanes: Cattle tend to be moved from northern Europe to Mediterranean destinations, while New Zealand and Australia export hundreds of thousands of sheep to the Middle East. Smaller trades carry livestock to the countries of South East Asia and and Argentina ships product to Asia.(Sources: Siba Ships; BIMCO)
