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.
Along with Werner Viessman of the Nautical Operations Centre, Jong-Man Hong, Managing Director Europe, Patrick Won, Country Manager Germany, and further representatives of HANJIN SHIPPING and Thomas Eckelmann, Emanuel Schiffer and Peter Zielinski of the EUROGATE Executive Board, to mark the occasion Captain Dosun Han of the HANJIN SOOHO was presented with the Admiralty Coat of Arms of the Port of Hamburg.
The HANJIN SOOHO will be deployed on the NE6 Europe-East Asia container line operated by HANJIN jointly with COSCO, K-Line and YANG MING. With this NE6 service, the four shipping companies call at the ports of Hamburg, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Algeciras, Singapore, Hong Kong, Xingang, Kwangyang, Busan, Shanghai, Yantian, Singapore, Algeciras and Hamburg in a rotation lasting 77 days.
In 2011 a total of 5.2 million TEU were handled in the Port of Hamburg’s container traffic with Asia. “The forthcoming deepening of the navigational channel of the Lower and Outer Elbe will further boost Hamburg’s attractiveness as the European hub port for mega-ships such as the HANJIN SOOHO,” said Patrick Won.