OOCL christens another ‘G Class’ vessel, the OOCL United Kingdom
Today, OOCL commemorated the christening of the latest 21,413 TEU containership. Constructed by Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), Hull H2175 is the fourth in the line of six ordered by OOCL from the Korean shipyard, the company said in its press release.
Named the OOCL United Kingdom, and together with her sister vessels, Chief Financial Officer of OOCL Mr. Alan Tung indicated that they are “a class of their own” as the world’s largest by carrying capacity.
Together with her sister ships, the OOCL United Kingdom, as the largest containership in the world, follows the same port rotation to call Felixstowe as the first European port of call in her maiden voyage. Interestingly, 27 years ago in 1990, the largest containership in the world at the time also celebrated her first European port of call on her maiden voyage to Felixstowe.
She was the vessel named OOCL Hope, a 3,500 TEU containership from OOCL. To put things further into perspective, OOCL United Kingdom is six times larger or 600% greater in capacity, but only burns 60% more fuel per day.
The OOCL United Kingdom will be serving the Asia-Europe trade lane on the LL1 service and her port rotation is: Shanghai / Ningbo / Xiamen / Yantian / Singapore / via Suez Canal / Felixstowe / Rotterdam / Gdansk / Wilhelmshaven / Felixstowe / via Suez Canal / Singapore / Yantian / Shanghai in a 77-day round trip.
“Orient Overseas Container Line” and “OOCL” are trade names for transportation provided separately by: Orient Overseas Container Line Limited (“OOCLL”) and OOCL (Europe) Limited respectively and both are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Orient Overseas (International) Limited, a public company (0316) listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Headquartered in Hong Kong, OOCL is one of the world's largest integrated international container transportation and logistics companies, with more than 330 offices in 70 countries. Linking Asia, Europe, North America, the Mediterranean, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East and Australia/New Zealand, the company offers transportation services to all major east/west trading economies of the world. OOCL is one of the leading international carriers serving China, providing a full range of logistics and transportation services throughout the country. It is also an industry leader in the use of information technology and e-commerce to manage the entire cargo process.
