The largest container ship in the world arrived at the Port of Felixstowe, much to the delight of shipspotters who had turned up along the approach to the port to welcome the OOCL Hong Kong. The ship is able to transport more than 21,000 20-foot containers in one trip. This is the maiden voyage of the ship. The ship was brought alongside the newest Quays in the boxport in the evening after a six-week long trip from China.
This is the latest mega ship to visit the Port of Felixstowe and it’s valued at £125m. Felixstowe is the busiest container port in Britain and the ship was arriving here only a few weeks after the Madrid Maersk. At the time of the Maersk’s arrival, it was the largest ship to come to northern Europe. This was the Madrid Maersk’s maiden voyage and it was carrying more than 20,000 containers. 6000 containers filled with goods from Malaysia and China were off-loaded from the ship which measures 399 metres in length and weighs 214,286 tonnes. There was another reason to celebrate the Hong Kong’s arrival since this was also the first time that OOCL had been to the port after 17 years.
The port is owned by Hutchison Ports and Clemence Cheng, the port boss and manager of Hutchison Ports Europe stated that the location of the port near the major shipping lanes and other ports in the region combined with the available transport network makes it the ideal choice for the giant container ships that are now being produced. He said that they were delighted to once again welcome OOCL with whom they have a 40-year relationship.
He also added that it was honoured that the Ocean Alliance had chosen them to be their main UK hub and they were looking forward to working with OOCL and the other partners in the alliance in the future so as to provide both exporters and importers in the UK with excellent service.
The managing director of OOCL stated that they were delighted by the warm welcome that was extended to their vessel at the port. The OOCL Hong Kong was built at Samsung Heavy Industries’ shipyard. It will be serving the Asia-Europe trade lane as part of OOCL’s LL1 service. Apart from OOCL, other member of the Ocean Alliance are Cosco Shipping, CMA CGM and Evergreen Line.