Zhichuan International Shipping is sending one of the rarest types of commercial ships to South Asia for recycling.
The final demolition destination of the Chinese shipowner’s 300-teu, 392-passenger container-passenger ship Xiang Xue Lan (built 1996) leaves only six of this hybrid type of vessel still operating worldwide.
On Thursday, the ship was heading up the Malacca Strait on its final voyage as the Comoros-flagged Xiang under the management of last-voyage delivery company Partagas Maritime.
Its recycling destination has yet to be disclosed.
The Xiang Xue Lan was one of four vessels ordered by the China Shipping Group to operate passenger and cargo services between Hong Kong and ports in the Chinese mainland.
The ship was built by MTW Schiffswerft in Germany together with its identical sistership, Zi Yu Lan (built 1995).
Merwede Shipyard of the Netherlands contributed two similar ships: the 250-teu, 348-passenger Yu Jin Xiang (built 1985) and Arafura Lily (built 1996).
They were described at the time as being expensive, high-quality ships with accommodation standards equal to that of cruiseships.
The passenger trade for which the quartet were ordered had petered out by the time they were delivered so they were instead chartered out to a variety ferry and liner operators running short-distance services across the Yellow Sea between China and South Korea.
The advantage they offered these operators was that their status as passengerships gave them priority berthing in ports frequently plagued by congestion-related delays.
Routes across the Yellow Sea are popular with Chinese traders and tourists.
Yantai Zhonghan Ferry operated the Xiang Xue Lan from 2015, almost immediately after it had been acquired by Zhichuan International as its first and only ship.
A Yantai Zhonghan source said the ferry operator has replaced it with a new ropax ferry — the 32,700-gt, 700-passenger Xin Xiang Xue Lan — that was delivered by Tianjin Xingang Shipyard at the end of last year.
The new ship is on long-term charter from Cosco Shipping Qingdao.
The remaining three vessels in the original Chinese quartet remain in service under different owners and operators for now.
Three other oceangoing passenger-carrying containerships are also in operation with CPTM of Tahiti, Pelni of Indonesia and Mauritius Shipping Corp.
