OOCL names its first 24,188 TEU mega vessel

24,188 TEU OOCL Spain is not only big, but smart with three ABS “Smart Ship” notations

Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) on Thursday officially named the first 24,188 TEU mega vessel in its fleet OOCL Spain, in a ceremony at the Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co., Ltd. (NACKS) shipyard in Nantong, China.

OOCL Spain is the first of a series of six 24,188 TEU vessels ordered by OOCL at NACKS in 2020 and, apart from being big, is also smart, with three ABS “Smart Ship” notations. OOCL says its use of the latest intelligent technology onboard, together with big data acquisition, will optimize the operations of the OOCL Spain, enabling fuel efficiency improvements, gains in structural health monitoring, and long-term navigational safety.

OOCL Spain will join OOCL’s Asia-Europe service LL3 from March. Her port rotation is: Shanghai / Xiamen / Nansha / Hong Kong / Yantian / Cai Mep / Singapore / Piraeus / Hamburg / Rotterdam / Zeebrugge / Valencia / Piraeus / Abu Dhabi / Singapore / Shanghai in an 84-day round trip.

Kenny Ye, Chief Operating Officer of Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd., said that the new vessel OOCL Spain is of great significance to OOCL: “OOCL Spain is not only the first newbuilding that has been delivered to us in over five years, but it is also OOCL’s first vessel with a capacity over 24,000 TEU. More importantly, she is the first newbuilding received by OOCL since the company joined the COSCO Shipping Group, and so it is the first vessel jointly created by OOCL and other sister companies. I would like to thank NACKS, who, using their own R&D and technological capabilities, have designed this mega vessel, equipped with the most advanced eco-friendly and intelligent technologies.”

At 24,188 TEU the OOCL Spain is a tad larger than Evergreen Marine’s 24,024 TEU Ever Alot, currently seen as the holder of the “world’s largest containership” title in terms of nominal carrying capacity. Both ships are 399.99 meters long, but at 61.3 meters beam the OOCL Spain is just a hair narrower than the 61.5 meter beam Ever Alot. Bigger than either, though are MSC Shipping’s MSC Irina and MSC Loreto, which have a reported capacity of 24,636 TEU. Both were floated out at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group on October 29, last year, and have a length of 399.9 meters and beam of 61.3 meters. MSC Irina reportedly started on sea trials, February 10. Depending on who, if anyone, keeps the “official” record of such things, at that point she may have taken the “world’s largest” title.