Hutchison Ports Port of Felixstowe will welcome its 100th 18,000+ TEU vessel of 2017 on Thursday this week as the UK’s maritime industry celebrates London International Shipping Week (LISW).
The 18,270 TEU Matz Maersk is operated by Maersk Line on the 2M Alliance’s AE10/NEU2 service between Europe and Asia.
Commenting on the milestone, Clemence Cheng, Executive Director, Hutchison Ports and a member of the LISW Board of Advisors, said: “The Port of Felixstowe is firmly established as the port of choice for the largest mega-vessels. We were the first port in the UK to handle this latest class of vessel and continue to handle more of them than any other UK port.
“15,000 industry visitors are expected to visit London International Shipping Week and this latest milestone at the Port of Felixstowe helps demonstrate how the UK remains at the forefront of the global shipping industry. The Matz Maersk will be the fourth of six mega vessels we are expecting this week and we are on course to exceed comfortably the 137 mega vessels we handled in 2016.”
The other ultra-large container vessels calling during LISW are the current world’s largest container ship, the 21,413 TEU OOCL Hong Kong, the 19,224 MSC Ditte, the 19,100 TEU CSCL Indian Ocean, its sister-ship and former holder of the world’s largest container ship crown, the CSCL Globe and the 19,224 TEU MSC Sveva.
In addition, the Emma Maersk, which set a new standard when launched in 2006, is also due at the Port of Felixstowe this week. Now with a capacity of 17,816 TEU it is one of over 250 ultra-large container ships to call at the port so far this year.