SOUTH
Korean shipping giant HMM announced that it has completed the
commissioning of its twelfth and final giant box ship, the 24,000 TEU HMM St Petersburg.
The
aggressive expansion programme, supported by the South Korean government, saw
the dozen ships which are billed as the world's largest super-class ships enter
service between May and September 2020.
The
last ship of the class, the HMM St Petersburg was built along with four others
at Samsung Heavy Industries. The other seven vessels were built at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co.
Delivery began with the HMM Algeciras in late April 2020, followed by HMM Oslo, HMM Copenhagen, HMM Dublin, HMM
Gdansk, HMM Rotterdam, HMM Hamburg, HMM Southampton, HMM Helsinki, and finally HMM Stockholm. All twelve ships
are sailing between Asia and Northern Europe permitting HMM to maintain weekly
sailings along the route.
With
dimensions of 1,312 feet in length and a 200-foot beam, each ship qualifies as
the largest of the box ships currently in service and part of a trend that has
seen dramatic growth in the size of container ships in recent years. HMM has expanded its total capacity from 400,000 to over
700,000 TEU.
The shipping
company said that the class of ships is highly efficient and eco-friendly
creating significant advantages in the market. HMM said that despite their size
the ships reduced fuel costs by 13 per cent per TEU compared to its previous class of 15,000 TEU ships.
Further,
HMM said that despite the sharp decrease in global volumes due to the impact of
the coronavirus, the ships have been sailing full. In
May, the HMM Algeciras set a world record in terms of shipments with 19,621
TEU, and since then the sister ships have averaged approximately 19,500 TEU on
their sailings.
In addition to this
class of ships, HMM also has eight 16,000 TEU-class container ships being built
by Hyundai Heavy Industries. Those vessels are due to be delivered in the first
half of 2021. This second class of ships will permit HMM to expand capacity to
approximately 850,000 TEU and are part of the line's strategy to reach a one
million TEU capacity by 2022, reports The Maritime Executive, Fort Lauderdale,
Florida.
Source
: HKSG.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar