On Sunday evening the shipping company Hamburg Süd christened its new container ship “Cap San Raphael” at the HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB), the company said in its press release. Around 700 guests celebrated the ship’s christening at Athabaskakai. The “Cap San Raphael” – which has a carrying capacity of 9,600 standard containers (TEU) – was subsequently hauled to Burchardkai’s mega-ship berths. Around 5,000 TEU will be loaded and discharged there ahead of the ship’s scheduled departure on Tuesday noon.
The ship’s sponsor is Ingeborg Schäuble, former Chair of the German Welthungerhilfe aid organisation and wife of the German Finance Minister, Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble. Other participants in the ceremony included Dr. h. c. August Oetker, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Oetker Group, Hamburg Senator for Economic Affairs, Frank Horch, and Dr. Stefan Behn, HHLA’s Executive Board member responsible for the Container segment.
The “Cap San Raphael” is one of six new container ships built for Hamburg Süd by the Korean shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan. With a length of 333 metres and a width of 48 metres, it is one of the shipping group’s largest ships. Like her five sister ships, she will be deployed in the liner service between Europe and the east coast of South America and will be regularly handled at the CTB. With more than 2,100 reefer container slots, the newbuilds in the Cap San class have the largest reefer capacity worldwide.