A China-built colossal ro-ro passenger ship set sail on a trial trip in south China, amazing the world with its 2,500-passenger capacity and multiple functionalities to meet the recreational and catering needs.
The Moby ro-ro passenger ship, hailed as a "five-star hotel drifting on sea", has a gross tonnage of 70,000 tons, a draft of 7.2 meters, a length of 237 meters and a molded breadth of 33 meters.
Zhou Xuhui, deputy general manager of the Moby's builder, the Guangzhou Shipyard International Co., Ltd. said the ro-ro passenger ship has combined functions of both transportation and tourism.
"The ro-ro passenger ship features the combination of transportation and tourism. Its lower part is mainly for roll-on and roll-off loading. Cars, trucks, wagons, trailers and vans can all be loaded onto the ship in a roll-on and roll-off manner with their cargoes. The upper part of ship also has passenger cabins," said Zhou.
The blue and white Moby ship has 13 decks, 4 garages, 536 cabins and nice interior facilities comparable to luxury cruise ships.
The project manager Cao Jifei said China built Moby all by itself, with independent intellectual property rights all reserved by the Chinese shipbuilder.
"All the interior facilities were built with domestic materials. In the past, even if we only missed one piece of sheet material, we had to import it and wait for one to two months. And it cost us about 20,000 U.S. dollars for one piece of sheet material if we import, even though the cost of it is just about 6-8 dollars. Now we can receive our missing material on the same day and the cost of construction has also been greatly reduced," said Cao.
The Moby is currently berthing at the Nansha International Cruise Home Port in Guangzhou City on a trial basis and is expected to return to its builder's ship base to complete preparatory work before its official departure.
The Moby will be used for passenger and cargo transportation in the Mediterranean region.
Source: CCTV
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