China builds world’s largest container ship

Chinese shipbuilder Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding announced that it has delivered the giant 24,116 TEU container ship MSC Tessa to its owner Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). This mega-ship built has a deck area roughly equal to four football fields.

Carries more than 24 thousand containers at one time

MSC Tessa can fit a total of 24,116 standard type containers by stacking up to 26 layers on its deck. The giant ship, 400 meters long and 61.5 meters wide, can carry more than 240,000 tons of cargo in one go. The shipbuilder also states that the shaft generator, which can optimize EEDI energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption, is also used for the first time. The shipbuilder also states that in addition to the first ship, the trials of the second ship of the family are over and the other two container ships are under construction.

On the other hand, MSC Tessa is not radically larger than other gigantic container ships of its kind, and the differences between them are minimal. However, a great deal of importance was given to efficiency in the design of the ship. The reason for this, of course, is port restrictions. To comply with these limits, the ship cannot be enlarged as desired. However, it is possible to see improvement thanks to space savings. As a matter of fact, the previous owner of this field, Maersk Triple-E, has been at the top for 12 years with a capacity of 18,000 containers. However, the capacity has been increased by 34 percent on the similarly sized MSC Tessa ship.

MSC expects three more such ships by August. These four vessels cost MSC a total of about $600 million, according to Offshore Energy. However, the order book of the Swiss-based container shipping giant is quite large. The company is by far the leader of the industry with 134 container ship orders, including new ones. All the ships he orders are built by giant manufacturers in different countries. However, ships will be able to run on LNG, ammonia or conventional fuel. Thus, a fleet ready for the future will be formed.