HMM Holds Christening Ceremony for World's Largest Containership

A christening ceremony for the world’s largest containership, the HMM Algeciras, was held at Okpo Shipyard of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in Geoje on April 23.

The vessel is the first of the 12 24,000 TEU container carriers ordered by HMM in September 2018.

The vessel is named after Spain’s Algeciras Terminal, which HMM acquired in 2017. The terminal is located at the intersection of a north-south route connecting Europe and South America and an east-west route connecting Asia and North America.

Starting with this ship, HMM plans to receive 12 24,000-TEU ships from DSME and Samsung Heavy Industries every two weeks until September, and eight 16,000-TEU ships from Hyundai Heavy Industries next year.

The 12 24,000-TEU container carriers will be put into an Asia-Europe route operated by The Alliance, a global shipping alliance of which HMM is a member. The vessels' hold spaces will be shared by The Alliance members.

Although the ship’s cargo capacity is the largest in the world, it boasts strong cost competitiveness because the number of its crew members is 23, the same as the crew size of a 3,000- to 4,000-TEU ship.

When the 20 large container carriers are all delivered to HMM, the shipper's capacity will more than double from the current 450,000 TEUs to about 900,000 TEUs. HMM plans to expand its hold capacities to about 1.1 million TEUs by 2022 through additional orders and chartering.