On August 23 the Rio Blanco was christened at Burchardkai in thePort of Hamburg. This is the fourth new vessel in a series totaling six container ships of identical design for Hamburg Süd. All of them have a slot capacity of 5,900 TEU, making them the largest vessels in the shipping group’s fleet.
The naming ceremony for the Rio Blanco was performed by Nina-Maria Oetker, wife of Dr. h.c. August Oetker, General Partner of Dr. August Oetker KG and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Hamburg Süd.
After its christening the Rio Blanco will continue to operate in the shipping group’s Europe-South America East Coast service, where it has been deployed since June 2009. By the end of the year the remaining two new vessels Rio Bravo (which was delivered last week) and Rio Madeira (which is still under construction) are also to be phased into this service. They will replace the Monte ships (5,500 TEU) currently employed there, which will then operate in Hamburg Süd’sAsia – South Africa/South America East Coast service.
The Rio Blanco is named after a river in the region of Valparaíso in central Chile.
Among the many guests were also 18 children from the SOS-Kinderdorf Harksheide nearHamburg. They had come to the ceremony at the personal invitation of Dr. h.c. August Oetker, who wanted to offer a very special experience to the six to seventeen year-olds. Similar invitations had also been issued on other occasions as Dr. Oetker had assumed a sponsorship for SOS-Kinderdorf e.V. in February 2007.
Rio Blanco Specifications:
Capacity 80,115 tdw
Container capacity 5,900 TEU
Reefer plugs 1,365
Length, o.a. 939.8 ft
Length, b.p. 897 ft
Breadth 131.2 ft
Max. draft 44.3 ft
Speed 23 kn
Main engine output 45,760 kW