Last year will go down as a bad one for the car carrier shipping sector. Vessels were either laid up or sold to reduce operations. However, the year ended with signs of improvement, although car carriers were still finding their way to the scrapyards of China, with one, Atlantic Breeze (1986/41,891gt), a regular caller at Southampton in the 1990s.
On the other hand, some carriers have kept sailing with good levels of cargo, including the newer Bahamas-flagged Coral Leader (2006/40,986gt), operated by United European Car Carriers of Norway and managed by Wallem Ship Management.
She regularly trades round the Mediterranean with her ports of call including Livorno, Malaga, Marseille, Barcelona, Piraeus and Vigo. In northern Europe her scope of operation includes Bremerhaven and Zeebrugge.
