Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) announced the naming of its latest container ship, the OOCL Hong Kong, at a christening ceremony held at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard, on Geoje Island, on May 12. The OOCL Hong Kong is one of the largest container ships in the world by carrying capacity, among Madrid Maersk and MOL Triumph.
With a carrying capacity at 21,413 TEU and a length of approximately 400 meters, the vessel is the first in the world to cross the 21,000 TEU mark.
Mr. C. C. Tung, Chairman of Orient Overseas (International) Limited, said: “Faced with increasing competition and un-ending pressure on costs, we need to take the bold step in operating larger size ships of quality and high efficiency in order to stay relevant and compete effectively as a major container shipping company.”
The OOCL Hong Kong will be serving the Asia-Europe trade lane on the LL1 service and her port rotation is: Shanghai / Ningbo / Xiamen / Yantian / Singapore / via Suez Canal / Felixstowe / Rotterdam / Gdansk / Wilhelmshaven / Felixstowe / via Suez Canal / Singapore / Yantian / Shanghai in a 77-day round trip.
The last time that OOCL set the world record for the largest container ship was back in April 2003 with the OOCL Shenzhen, an 8,063 TEU vessel, also built at the SHI shipyard.
