WASHINGTON: The Port of Felixstowe is about to complete a century of “mega-ship” visits for 2017, as the UK’s maritime industry celebrates London International Shipping Week (LISW). Share article from on facebook Tweet article from Share article from on Google Pluspost article from on reddit email article from The call on Thursday, September 14, by the 18,270 TEU Matz Maersk – operated by Maersk Line on the 2M Alliance’s AE10/NEU2 service between Europe and Asia – will mark the 100th time the port has welcomed an 18,000-plus TEU vessel this year.
Clemence Cheng, executive director at Hutchison Ports and a member of the LISW board of advisers, 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.” He added: “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 more than 250 ultra-large container ships to call at the port so far this year.
