Naming ceremony for world’s largest container ship
With almost 24,000 TEU, the HMM Algeciras is the biggest container ship to date (Source: HMM)
The South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, various Government ministers and other high-ranking officials were amongst the 160 distinguished guests who attended HMM’s naming ceremony of the world’s largest container ship, the 23,964-TEU HMM Algeciras, at Daewoo’s Okpo shipyard in Geoje recently.
The 400m-long vessel, with a beam of 61m and flying the flag of Panama, is the first of twelve giant container ships in this class which are due for delivery to the South Korean container line - recently rebranded from Hyundai Merchant Marine to HMM - between now and September. Daewoo is building seven of the vessels and Samsung five.
“For me, it is very meaningful that HMM takes delivery of the most technologically advanced container ship in this difficult time,” said the South Korean President. “I would like to celebrate it and hope that HMM continues to secure a competitive advantage as a Korean national flagship carrier.” The vessel is delivering into a market of chaos caused by Covid-19. Cargo volumes on the world’s largest container trade between Asia and Europe, where the ship is to be deployed, are sharply down. Many scheduled sailings have been blanked by carriers and ships that are continuing to operate on the route are often sailing half empty.
