The ship's design is designed as a multipurpose dry cargo ship with a deckhouse arranged aft and a long central hold . The volume of the hold is 10,774 m 3 , the tank ceiling is designed for loads of 15 tons / m 2 . The displaceable tween decks can with 3.5 tonnes / m 2 are charged, the hatch covers with 1.75 tons / m 2 . The ships are mainly used in the transport of bulk goods, bulk cargo, smaller project cargoes or containers. The container capacity is 287 TEU . The ships are equipped with two electrohydraulic NMF ship cranes attached to port, each with a lifting capacity of 60 tons, which can move packages of up to 120 tons in coupled operation . The holds of the ships are closed by stacking hatch covers (piggy-back), which are operated by a movable hatch car.
The ships are powered by a diesel engine . The engine enables a speed of around 13.5 knots . The berthing and casting off maneuvers are supported by a bow thruster . Particularly noticeable is the foredeck with Groot Cross-Bow, the shape of which should enable low fuel consumption. In addition, this bow shape is intended to minimize the ship's pitching movements in heavy seas.
Two of the ships have been put into service so far, the UAL Africa and the UAL Bodewes . Other units of the longer version of Bodewes Eko Trader 8700 , the UAL Houston , ran in early November 2012 from the stack . All ships in the series were initially registered for the Marner shipping company Erwin Strahlmann during construction and were taken over by the shipping company Universal Africa Lines upon completion.
