German shipping major Hapag-Lloyd has christened its 15,000 TEU ship Al Jmeliyah in Rotterdam on September 11.
The ultra large container vessel (ULCV), which has ten sister vessels, was built in 2016 for the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC). UASC merged with Hapag-Lloyd in May 2017.
15,000 TEU container ship “Al Jmeliyah” christened in Rotterdam. Find all the details here: https://t.co/gE63wPb6ux pic.twitter.com/rPtcbnujza
— Hapag-Lloyd AG (@HapagLloydAG) September 11, 2018
The boxship is 385.5 meters long and 51 meters wide and is one of Hapag-Lloyd’s 17 so-called LNG-ready ships that are technically equipped to use liquefied natural gas. It was manufactured by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in South Korea.
Al Jmeliyah operates in the FE4 service, the Far East 4 loop. Departing from Rotterdam, it sails to Hamburg, Antwerp, Southampton, Yantian, Shanghai, Busan, Ningbo, and Shanghai before heading back to Europe.
This was not the first time that Hapag-Lloyd has christened a ship in Rotterdam. The most recent one was the christening of the Rotterdam Express in 2000.
“With its 4,890 TEU, it was enormous for the time,” said Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen .
“Less than 20 years later, we are christening a ship here that is three times as big. This illustrates the huge changes in our industry in terms of capacities and technologies.”