P&O Maritime Logistics uses its Multi Carrying Vessel (MCV) fleet to transport off-site manufactured pre-finished volumetric hotel villas. The villas will be transported from the United Arab Emirates to the Sheybarah Island Resort on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Coast.
P&O Maritime Logistics signed the contract to transport the unique hotel villas with heavy lifting and transport specialist Mammoet. The latter had been contracted by Red Sea Global for the transport and installation of the villas for Sheybarah Island Resort earlier this year.
Shallow draught MCVs
The MCVs selected for the project were serviced in drydock facilities before the contract in order to limit their possible impact on local marine life. Additionally, their ballast systems were filled with water from the Red Sea to reduce the chance of introducing foreign organisms.
The shallow draught of the MCVs and the versatile thruster arrangement used on P&O Maritime Logistics vessels mean that there will be minimal disturbance of the shallow seabed. Moreover, The MCVs’ shallow draught makes them an ideal vessel for accessing areas where larger ships are unable to fit due to their size.
Sheybarah Island Resort
The Sheybarah Island Resort is a cornerstone project and part of the Saudi 2030 vision and will consist of a total of 73 uniquely shaped and prefabricated villas, some of which will hover above the island’s diverse ecosystem. The stainless-steel orbs were conceptualised by Oppenheim Architecture, based in Miami and designed by Killa Design, the same designers of Dubai’s Museum of the Future.
With mangroves, beaches and coral reefs, the resort will utilise the latest sustainable and eco-friendly technologies to preserve and enhance the local environment.
Red Sea transport
P&O Maritime Logistics, a subsidiary of DP World, recently chartered a new route between the Port of Jeddah and Port Sudan, where its MCV fleet is carrying containers across the Red Sea for the first time, brining additional volumes and reducing waiting times for main line carriers.
‘As a company headquartered in Dubai, we regularly operate in the Red Sea and around the Middle East,’ says Martin Helweg, CEO of P&O Maritime Logistics. ‘It is particularly exciting that our MCV fleet has been so successful in this region on a variety of projects.’
