HONG Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has taken delivery of the latest 21,413 TEU containership, OOCL United Kingdom, the fourth in the line of six ordered by the ocean carrier from the Korean shipyard, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI).
Chief Financial Officer of OOCL, Alan Tung said that the OOCL United Kingdom, and together with her sister vessels, are "a class of their own" as the world's largest by carrying capacity.
"Following our 'M Class' of 13,208 TEU vessels also built here at SHI, we are delighted to be adding these state-of-the-art titans at sea 'G Class' containerships into our fleet," said Mr Tung at the naming ceremony.
Together with her sister ships, the OOCL United Kingdom, follows the same port rotation to call Felixstowe as the first European port of call in her maiden voyage. Interestingly, 27 years ago in 1990, the largest containership in the world at the time also celebrated her first European port of call on her maiden voyage to Felixstowe. She was the vessel named OOCL Hope, a 3,500 TEU containership from OOCL. To put things further into perspective, OOCL United Kingdom is six times larger or 600 per cent greater in capacity, but only burns 60 per cent more fuel per day, the ocean carrier said in a statement.
The OOCL United Kingdom 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 and Shanghai in a 77-day round trip.
