Chemical Product tankers visit Birkenhead docks to load cargoes at the furthest navigable point of the dock system, having to negotiate the lever bridges and narrow entrances within it. Normally, smaller vessels make this trip, but on 12 November 2011 the 11,629dwt chemical product tanker Chem Leo arrived from Belgium in ballast. At 117m by 20m, she was only just able to fit through the docks, aided by the tug SmithBarbados.
The 6,332gt tanker, built in 1998 and operated by the Amsterdam-based Ace Tankers CV, normally trades within Europe, but after her visit to Birkenhead she headed to the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam, where she loaded for Houston, Texas.
