First 8,888-TEU ship of eight, OOCL Beijing, is named in Shanghai

HONG KONG's Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has held a naming ceremony for the OOCL Beijing at Hudong-Zhonghua yard in Shanghai, welcoming the biggest vessel in the company fleet and the first of the eight 8,888-TEU ships on order from the shipbuilder.


"In 2010 the container throughput of Shanghai was 29.07 million TEU occupying the top position among all ports in the world for the first time," said Tung Chee Chen, chairman of parent company Orient Overseas (International) Ltd (OOIL), in a company statement.


"We commissioned Hudong-Zhonghua to build our 8,888-TEU vessels, the greatest in capacity of our vessel fleet to hopefully promote the shipbuilding industry [in China] further and lay the foundation for our long-term cooperation," said Mr Tung.


The vessel is 335 metres long, 42.8 metres wide, and will be deployed on the Asia-Middle East Express (MAX) service with a rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Hong Kong, Shenzhen-Shekou, Singapore, Jebel Ali, Damman, Bandar Abbas, Port Kelang, Singapore, Hong Kong and back to Shanghai on a 42-day loop.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)