Shipping lines calling at Southampton’s container terminal are benefitting from the terminal’s continued drive on productivity as vessels turnaround times reduce.

The South Coast terminal set its best ever vessel turnaround performance when it handled the maiden call of the largest ship in the Hyundai fleet.

The Hyundai Together was turned around in 24 hours well ahead of its allotted window and set new productivity records.

In a 12-hour shift, 600 containers were moved by an individual crane on the Hyundai Together, equivalent to 50 moves per hour.

The overall vessel exchange rate was 147 mph with an average crane rate of 34.58 mph.

Chris Lewis, Managing Director, DP World Southampton, which operates the terminal, paid tribute to staff for the new benchmarks, which follows a 20 per cent rise in productivity last year.

He said: “I would like to publically thank everyone involved in this fantastic achievement, which demonstrates our leading performance in UK ports on reducing vessel turnaround times.

“While this might not mean a great deal to those a few steps removed in the supply chain, we know that this translates directly into less disruption for carriers and shippers.

“Our aim is to make the transition of goods through our terminal as seamless as possible for the UK’s importers and exporters.

“This latest record underscores our collective ambition to be one of the best terminals in Western Europe for customers.

“It is also a reflection of a strong team spirit here at the terminal, from everyone on the quayside to everyone in the office, who understand it’s not just a box we’re moving but goods and merchandise for retailers, manufactures and business throughout the UK.”

Hyundai Together, at 366m long, 48m wide and 13,000 teu, was the first ship to call on the new loop 4 service operated by the G6 Alliance, incorporating Shanghai, Ningbo, South China, Singapore, Southampton, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Singapore, South China and Shanghai.