SHANGHAI : The World’s Largest Container Ship, the first of its kind made by China, was delivered on last Wednesday in the coastal city of Shanghai.
The Ever Alot has a capacity of 24,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units), the measurement used to determine cargo capacity for container ships and ports and based on the volume of a 20-foot-long (6.1-meter) standard-sized container.
It was designed by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, with complete independent intellectual property rights. The ship is 399.99 meters long, over 60 meters longer than the largest aircraft carrier in the world, and 61.5 meters wide, with a deck area of 24,000 square meters, equivalent to 3.5 standard football fields.
With a cargo compartment of 33.2 meters deep, it can carry 240,000 tonnes of cargo packed in more than 24,000 standard containers at a time, a global high.
Containers can be stacked to a maximum height equivalent to a 22-story building.
The vessel also features energy-saving designs. The shipbuilder has adopted the latest hydrodynamic optimization technologies, allowing the vessel to carry heavy loads at high speed with low fuel consumption.
It will serve the route from the Far East to Europe after put into operation.
Hudong-Zhonghua has previously delivered nearly 70 container ships with a capacity of above 8,000 TEU and is working on a total of nine ultra-large container ships of 24,000 TEU, ranking first among major Chinese shipyards.
