While much of the global liner industry is favoring new ships that are smaller than megamax, China continues to push the boundaries in container shipping sizes.
Among the notable announcements at the SMM event in Hamburg earlier this month, the China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) Shanghai Ship Research and Design Institute received approval in principle for a 27 500 TEU LNG dual-fuel containership, which is over 3 000 TEU larger in capacity than the largest boxships currently in operation.
Source: China State Shipbuilding Corporation
Additionally, the world’s largest port, Ningbo-Zhoushan, has begun construction on its latest berths, which are designed to accommodate ships of up to 32 000 TEU. Similarly, Yantian, located in eastern Shenzhen, is also building new facilities capable of handling 32 000 TEU vessels.
Currently, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) operates the largest containership, having taken delivery of a series of 24 346 TEU ships last year.
The trend of increasing containership sizes has seen capacities nearly quadruple in this century. However, in the past year, global carriers have primarily placed orders for vessels in the 16 000 TEU range, which are more flexible and suitable for a variety of trade routes, rather than solely the Asia-Europe routes where today’s megamax vessels are typically deployed.
