About EMPIRE TRADER
EMPIRE TRADER is a Portugal-flagged General Cargo registered under IMO 9448829 (MMSI 208937474) and currently associated with the Port of Cape Town, South Africa. Vessels in this class belong to the broader roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) facility family — operationally that means cargo handling and voyage planning are dominated by pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs), ro-pax ferries, and project cargo ro-ro tonnage. Stern and side ramps allow wheeled cargo to drive on and off, supported by paved marshalling yards capable of staging thousands of vehicles or trailer units between vessel calls. She measures 104 metres in length overall by 15 metres in beam, with a gross tonnage of 24,710 GT and a deadweight of 34,320 tonnes.
The vessel is shown as recently departed, having cleared the port and resumed sea passage toward her next declared destination. Her current declared estimated time of arrival is Apr 30, 2026 03:42 UTC, although ETAs are routinely revised in transit to reflect weather, routeing and pilot scheduling. She was built in 2016. The vessel is registered with the International Maritime Organization, whose database of registered ships and the conventions governing their operation is published at the IMO conventions library.
IMO numbers are issued by IHS Markit on behalf of the International Maritime Organization and remain attached to the hull for the lifetime of the vessel â they do not change with sale, re-flagging, or rename. MMSI numbers, in contrast, are issued by the flag state’s telecommunications administration and identify the vessel’s radio installation; an MMSI changes when a vessel changes flag. When researching an individual ship across historical records â particularly for incident investigation, port state inspection history, or insurance claims â the IMO number (9448829) is the stable identifier to anchor the search on, while the MMSI is the right key for AIS reception logs and VHF radio licensing records.
The vessel’s declared dimensions of 104 metres length overall by 15 metres beam, with 24,710 gross tonnage and 34,320 tonnes deadweight, place her in a specific size class within the global general cargo fleet. These particulars determine which port berths she can use, which canals she can transit (Panama Canal locks, Suez Canal draught, the Strait of Malacca’s Malaccamax constraint), and which terminals around the world have the cranes and yard plant to work her efficiently.