- Italcementi Group

From left: near Ceo Carlo Pesenti the godmother Federica Pesenti, Alessandro Turbati (Medcem), Vincenzo Romeo and Giovanni Romeo (Romeo Shipping)

Italcementi Group is making a direct move into the sea transport business for loose cement with the launch in Dordrecht (Netherlands) of the M/V Turbocem, a self-unloading cement carrier with a 5,500 tonne net load capacity.

The ship is registered to the Italcementi Group in partnership with the Romeo group, which brings the experience acquired in the sea transport of loose cement.

Turbocem is controlled by Medcem, an equally owned joint venture set up by Intercom (Italcementi Group) and Romeo Shipping (Romeo group), which already operates as a logistic partner for Italcementi in the shipping of cement and other intermediate goods and raw materials.
The investment made to construct the new vessel totaled around 6.5 million euro, and represents the first step in a strategy that will lead the Italcementi Group to increase its direct presence in sea transport in the future.
The initiative provides Italcementi with its own resources to ensure continuity of cement delivery to its maritime terminals in the Mediterranean, and was decided also in light of the sharp increase in sea freight costs since 2003, which is expected to continue in the future.

This direct investment in the maritime transport

sector will give the Italcementi Group greater flexibility and cost savings in cement transport by sea in order to meet market demands in a more timely fashion, commented Italcementi representatives at the launching ceremony in the Van Aalst shipyards. The features of a self-unloading vessel allow the cement to be unloaded directly in a closed cycle - and therefore with zero environmental impact - from the ship to the Group's port silos or to trucks for final delivery of the product.

The Turbocem, which flies the Italian flag, will be used mainly in the Mediterranean basin where Italcementi Group plays an important role, stocking up at the plants - often located near the coast - in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, and Egypt, as well as Bulgaria on the Black Sea.

The ship will make use of Italcementi's Italian port terminals (Ortona, Marghera, Ancona, La Spezia, and soon Ravenna and Genoa) and will sail on shipping routes for journeys of 3 to 6 days, guaranteeing coverage of 10-15% of the Italcementi Group's total traffic in the Mediterranean, for an annual total of around 150,000 tonnes of transported cement.

M/V TURBOCEM
LOA	92.80 m (the length of a football pitch)
Beam	17.00 m
Net Load Capacity	5,500 tonnes
Gross/net tonnage	3,779/1,731 tonnes
Engines	principal Mak 2,650 Kw, 3 auxiliary Scania
Holds	2 self-trimming high-pressure holds, discharge on 4 trucks simultaneously. Unloading capacity at 300 m
Flag	Italian, port of registry Naples
Classification body	Bureau Veritas
Year of initial construction	1992