Mega Containership News

South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) booked an order from Denmark’s  Celsius Tankers for two liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, securing an option for further two vessels.A press release said that SHI won a newbuilding contract for two 180,000㎥ LNG carriers from a European shipowner Celsius Tankers. The price is 187 million USD per vessel. The LNG carriers would be equipped with Mark-Ⅲ Flex type containment system with re-liquefaction to lower BOR. The vessels are equipped for environmental regulations such as SCR and BWTS. They are also loaded with fuel saving technologies including optimized hull design and propulsion…

ABB turbochargers installed on board China’s largest containership help to ensure optimal performance and fuel efficiency.The flagship in COSCO SHIPPING Lines’ Universe mega containership series, the 21,000+ TEU COSCO Shipping Universe, was delivered in June 2018 by Chinese shipbbuilder Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) Co. Ltd. The vessel is equipped with three ABB A180-L two-stroke turbochargers to match the diesel main engine and four ABB TPL67-C33 4-stroke turbochargers to match four auxiliary engines.COSCO SHIPPING Lines Co.…

OOCL celebrated the christening of Hull H2173, a 21,413 TEU newbuilding constructed at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard on Geoje Island. Named as OOCL Germany, this mega containership is the second of the six 21 thousand TEU class vessels on order at the shipyard and they are an important part to enhancing the competitiveness and efficiency of our modern fleet. As with many of our newbuildings, extra efforts have been made to ensure that they are operationally efficient and meeting the highest environmental standards. In fact, the OOCL Germany, and her sister vessels, are designed with many advanced green features that can help meet future environmental requirements.

Todd Schauer is Director of Operations at Resolve Marine Group, as well as President of the American Salvage Association. After graduating from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a degree in Naval Architecture in 1991, he followed that up with graduate degrees in Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. And, while his considerable U.S. Coast Guard experience includes shipboard engineering, marine safety, advanced engineering and emergency response, he is best known for his longtime role in the commercial salvage business.

CMA CGM’s mega containership Vasco De Gama ran aground off the Port of Southampton on the UK’s south coast just after midnight on August 22, 2016, reported Fleetmon. The damages of the  2015-built, 17,859 teu giant vessel are being assessed. There is no news on the damage as of yet. During the accident there were no injured people and no water pollution. The ship was refloated within an hour and proceeded to the port where an underwater survey will be conducted. The local authorities reported that traffic in the area was not affected by the grounding of ultra large container ship. The investigation for the root cause of grounding is under way. The ultra large container ship was built in 2015 by Jiangnan Changxing Shipbuilding in China.

French shipping line CMA CGM SA will no longer run the mega containership Benjamin Franklin between Asia and the U.S. West Coast, on account of weak market conditions, reports FT. According to sources, Benjamin Franklin’s voyages have been suspended on the route between Asia and U.S. West Coast ports including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and Seattle, after just five months amid an industry slump that has seen shipping lines’ earnings plummet. The largest containership to call at a U.S. port when it stopped in Los Angeles in December, Benjamin Franklin, which is 398 meters long and can carry 18,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, required 56 hours, nine cranes and 11,200 container moves to unload the vessel.

The largest containership ever to dock at a North American seaport has returned to Southern California. The Benjamin Franklin will officially enter service for the first time on Friday in Long Beach following an inauguration ceremony hosted by French shipping line CMA CGM and attended by elected leaders, port officials and industry executives. The CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, which has a container capacity of 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) or 9,000 40-foot-long boxes, arrived Thursday morning at Pier J’s Pacific Container Terminal (PCT).

The largest container ship to visit the U.S. West Coast is scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles on December 26. The CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, which was launched on December 10 is scheduled to make her maiden call at APM Terminals-Pier 400 at the Port of Los Angeles. The ship has a capacity of nearly 18,000 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), which is about a third larger than the biggest container ships that currently call at the San Pedro Bay port complex. “We were just welcoming a generation of 13,000 TEU vessels earlier this year, and now we are seeing one 28 percent bigger,” said Philip Sanfield, a spokesman for the port. The largest of the cargo ships that currently visit the port can hold up to 14,000 20-foot containers laden with goods from faraway ports.

Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan's largest container shipping company, plans to charter seven new vessels with capacity of 14,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) to upgrade its fleet at lower unit costs, while disposing of smaller and older vessels, reports the Taipei Times, . The seven vessels — owned by Sumitomo Corp, a leading integrated trading company in Japan — are scheduled to be delivered to Evergreen in 2016 and 2017, with a 10-year term of tenancy. Evergreen launched a plan last year to introduce more large vessels…

The 13,208 TEU containership  was christened 'OOCL Chongqing' at a ceremony in the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard on Geoje Island, South Korea. The OOCL Chongqing will be serving the Asia-Europe trade on the Loop 5 service where her port rotation is: Kwangyang / Busan / Shanghai / Ningbo / Yantian / Shekou / Singapore / Suez Canal / Rotterdam / Hamburg / Southampton / Suez Canal / Singapore and back to Kwangyang in a 77-day round trip. Among distinguished guests was the vessel Sponsor Mr. He Guangbei, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Ltd.

During her maiden voyage the HANJIN SOOHO, the Korean shipping company HANJIN’s largest containership to date, berthed in the Port of Hamburg on 4 May 2012. With a slot capacity of 13,100 TEU (20-ft standard containers), this mega-containership was handled at Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg. The HANJIN SOOHO is 366 metres long, 48.20 metres wide, and has over 800 connections for reefer containers. It was named in honour of the late Sooho Cho, former Chairman of Hanjin Shipping Group, who died in 2006. The HANJIN SOOHO is also the first of nine 13,100-TEU newbuilds to be deployed by HANJIN jointly with its partners on the East Asia-Europe service NE6 organized by the CKYH Alliance.

The shipping industry has been warned by a leading maritime lawyer that it may soon face its “Deepwater Horizon moment” in the event of a mega containership casualty. Recent high profile container ship casualties have involved relatively small vessels capable of carrying up to 4688 containers (MSC Napoli). The Rena, which is currently breaking up off the coast of New Zealand, has a capacity of 3352 containers. By comparison, the largest vessels sailing today are carrying over 15000 boxes.

Hapag-Lloyd is naming the containership Bremen Express in Bremerhaven. The patron of the 335m long mega containership capable of carrying 8,749 standard containers is Hilde Herwig, wife of Thomas W. Herwig, managing partner of the long-established Bremen logistics company Röhlig. With its Bremen Express, Hapag-Lloyd has expanded its fleet to 142 containerships with a total capacity of over 514,000 TEU. It has ordered another 15 identical vessels from the South Korean Hyundai Heavy Industries for delivery up the end of 2011. Hapag-Lloyd, which is one of the top five container lines worldwide, is thus preparing to share in the long-term growth in international container transport.

The Hanover Express, which is capable of carrying 8,750 containers, is one of the world’s largest containerships. The newbuilding was recently named in Hamburg. The patron was Gabriele Frenzel, wife of TUI’s CEO and chairman of the supervisory board of Hapag-Lloyd, Dr. Michael Frenzel. Naming ceremonies for large containerships are still something special even in Hamburg, and nearly 300 guests from business and politics – including the Mayor of Hamburg Ole von Beust and the Mayor of Hanover Bernd Strauch – attended the event at Container Terminal Altenwerder, at the quays of which the Hanover Express had berthed. Hapag-Lloyd’s latest newbuilding was named by Gabriele Frenzel. The new ship sailing under German flag can carry 8,750 standard containers.

Israel Corp. subsidiary Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. said it had placed an order to purchase eight mega container ships from the South Korea’s shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. The deal, valued at $1.37b, ($170m each) comes six weeks after Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. announced its plan to upgrade its container vessels fleet. The company had ordered eight TEU 12,600 mega containership for delivery by July 2012. The purchase will substantially increase the Israeli-based carrier's fleet when the vessels arrive in 2012. The order took the global shipping sector by surprise, since Zim had generally bought its containerships from rival South Korean's Hyundai Shipyards.

Hapag-Lloyd AG has expanded its fleet with another containership. The Tsingtao Express was named in Qingdao, China. It can carry 8,750 standard containers. The Tsingtao Express, named in the Port of Qingdao, is the second newbuilding that Hapag-Lloyd has integrated into its fleet in 2007. Five more vessels will follow until 2008. The Hamburg-based shipping line now has a globally deployed fleet comprising about 140 ships capable of transporting a total of over 467,000 boxes. The Tsingtao Express bears the old name of Qingdao, by which the city is also still known in Europe today. The Tsingtao Express will be deployed in the context of the Grand Alliance.

H.H. Meier on February 20, 1857. Since its merger with Hapag in 1970, it has been part of Hapag-Lloyd, which is today among the top 5 in global container shipping. “North German Lloyd was an institution. line at the festive event in the Bremen town hall. key role in the early days of aviation. The legendary Lloyd founder H.H. also a vital figure in the establishment of Bremer Bank. emigrants with modern steamers rapidly and reliably to New York. hope of a better life. Bremen and Lloyd. the politics of the Senate. between a shipping line and its region. is no exaggeration to say that Lloyd was Bremen. Hapag-Lloyd AG in 1970. “It was a wise move. success,” pointed out Dr. AG and supervisory board chairman of Hapag-Lloyd AG, in his festive address.

Hapag-Lloyd has taken delivery of another mega containership with a capacity for 8,750 standard containers, the Osaka Express. The vessel was named in Hong Kong and will be deployed between Europe and Far East. Desbois, CEO of JF Hillebrand Group AG. and whiskies and is leading in this segment worldwide. merchandise carried in a container can thus quickly reach six-figure sums. The Osaka Express is being deployed between Europe and the Far East. ship is 1,099 ft. long and 141 ft. wide and measures over 196.8 ft. keel to superstructure. dimensions of three football fields. containers and has 730 reefer plugs for refrigerated containers. days. Michael Behrendt noted that Hapag-Lloyd has a very traditional link with China.

A convincing economic argument fuels the liner shipping sector's adoption of unprecedented capacity ratings, with a new level soon to be reached in impending projects for newbuilds in the 9,000-TEU category, and technical work set in train for ships in the 10,000-12,500 TEU category. Experts believe that behemoths of 18,000-TEU could be in service on specific volume trades within a decade, yielding unit operating cost savings in the order of 30-percent relative to the 5,000-TEU size. The enormous infrastructural implications attached to nurturing a new generation of ultra-large container vessels seem to be less daunting now compared with even a year ago…

Classification society Bureau Veritas (BV) expects demand for container slots to double over the next 10 years, making current post-panamax containerships too small. Collaborating with Knud E. Hansen, BV has developed a revolutionary 12,500 teu containership design, which it says would provide economies of scale and harness innovative technical solutions to providing additional capacity. BV's mega containership would be constructed with a scantling draft of 47 ft. (14.5 m) and molded breadth of 178 ft. (54.2 m), carrying 15,523 teu on a deadweight of 152,000. The engine room and casings are positioned one quarter length from aft with the deckhouse forward of amidships, giving higher torsional rigidity, shorter shaftlines and better visibility from the bridge.

Bureau Veritas expects demand for container slots to double over the next decade, making current post-panamax containerships too small. revolutionary 12,500 teu containership design which it says would provide economies of scale and harness innovative technical solutions to providing more capacity. "There are nearly 15 major terminals which could accommodate this size of vessel," says Matthieu de-Tugny, product manager dry bulk and containers for BV. "There are several feasible technical solutions to developing such ships, which represent new designs, not simply extensions of current thinking. At capacities over 10,000 teu, conventional designs cannot be maintained. It is a challenge for the whole shipping industry.

The Kyoto Express, Hapag-Lloyd’s latest mega containership, was named in Yokohama and consecrated with the traditional Shinto ceremony. The patron was the wife of NYK Chairman Minako Kusakari. The Kyoto Express is a giant containership measuring 1099 ft. (335 m) long, 141 ft. (43 m) wide; and over 197 ft. (60 m) from the keel to the superstructure. The newbuilding has a capacity of 104,000 t and can carry 8,750 standard containers (TEU). The main engine provides a speed of 25 knots (almost 50 km/h). The vessel, which sails under German flag, is manned by a crew of 24. The Kyoto Express is deployed in the context of the Grand Alliance…

Hapag-Lloyd has taken delivery of another mega containership with a capacity for 8,750 standard containers, the “Osaka Express”. The vessel was named in Hong Kong and will be deployed between Europe and Far East. “Over a third of containers carried in global transport is accounted for by China. All forecasts indicate continued stable growth. To be able always to provide adequate ship capacity for our customers in Asia, we have invested massively in recent years and will continue to do so in future,” emphasised Michael Behrendt, chairman of the executive board of Hapag-Lloyd AG, at the naming ceremony in Hong Kong. The naming was performed in Hong Kong by Catherine Desbois, wife of Gérard Desbois, CEO of JF Hillebrand Group AG.