World's largest container ship starts maiden voyage from Qingdao Port

HMM Algeciras, the world's largest container ship with a loading capacity of 24,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), set out on its maiden voyage from Qingdao Port, a branch of Shandong Port Group, on April 26.

Recently launched in South Korea, it is the first of 12 ships with a TEU capacity of 24,000 and belongs to Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), the world's 14th largest container ship company in terms of vessel capacity.

The vessel measures 399.9 meters long, 61.03 meters in beam length and 33.2 meters tall, and has an intended capacity of 23,964 containers. It has a deck area of more than 24,000 square meters, about the size of nearly four standard football fields, said Zhang Jun, deputy general manager of the Qingdao Qianwan United Container Terminal Co Ltd.

The HMM Algeciras can carry some 200 more containers than the previous largest container ship, Zhang added. When fully loaded, all 24,000 containers, if connected end to end, would reach a total length of 150 kilometers.

The empty ship arrived at Qingdao Port in the early morning of April 26 and sailed for Busan several hours later carrying 4,560 TEUs of chemical, mechanical and electrical supplies as well as non-staple food products.

The container ship's port rotation also includes Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian, Suez Canal, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp and London.