SINGAPORE's APL, the container shipping arm of Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), has received the 10,700-TEU APL Southampton, the first vessel in a six-ship series to come in two stages from Korea's Daewoo Shipping & Marine Engineering (DSME).

The company said the vessels are part of an initial eight 10,000-TEU ship programme split between two shipyards (four each at DSME and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in June 2007, and later boosted to 10 ships in August 2010 with two additional units ordered at DSME. The APL Southampton is to join the new G6 Asia-Europe Loop 4.

The HHI ships are slightly smaller than the DSME units, at 10,070 TEU. Three of the four HHI-built vessels have been delivered since December, with the last, the APL Qingdao, due next month.