HHI cuts first steel for world’s largest box ships

JANUARY 20, 2014 — The world’s largest shipbuilder has started construction of what will be the world’s largest containerships. Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) today held a ceremony at its Ulsan, South Korea, to mark cutting of the first steel for the  the first of five 19,000 TEU containerships for China Shipping Container Lines (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd.

The shipowner originally ordered the ships with a capacity of 18,400 TEU containers but has since upsized that by 600 more containers per ship. The ships will be 400 m long, 58.6 m wide and 30.5 m deep.

The first is scheduled for delivery in November this year, with the remaining four slated to be delivered by the end of the first quarter of 2015.

The ships will each have a 77,200 bhp electronically-controlled main engine and two EcoBallast seawater treatment systems capable of treating 3,000 cu.m of  ballast water per hour by filtering and sterilizing bacteria and plankton bigger than 50 µm with ultraviolet rays.