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CSC's largest ship makes maiden voyage to Europe

By Chen Qide (China Daily Shanghai Bureau)
Updated: 2011-01-21 17:20

A maiden voyage ceremony for container ship CSCL Star is held at Shanghai Yangshan Port on Thursday. [Photo/China Daily Shanghai Bureau]

SHANGHAI - China Shipping Co (CSC) launched a maiden voyage for its largest ship at Yangshan Port on Thursday. The ship can carry 14,100 twenty equivalent-unit (TEU) containers.

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The ship, named CSCL Star, was built by South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries Shipyard and was put into operation on the Europe route, said Zhang Guofa, vice president of CSC.

The ship will call at ports at Ningbo in Zhejiang province, Yantian in Guangdong province, Felixstowe in Britain, Hamburg in Germany, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Hong Kong.

Insiders said CSC is making an effort to reinforce its container fleet for expansion into the shipping business in Europe.

"The maiden voyage marks CSC taking a big step toward its container business," said Zhang.

The ship, costing 700 million yuan, is 366.069 meters in length and 51.2 meters wide, with capacity to carry 14,100 TEU containers.

Zhang said CSC has ordered eight such ships, with the Star being the first. The Korean shipyard will deliver five this year and two early next year.

"The new ships will reinforce CSC's competitive edge on the global container shipping market," Zhang said.

CSC has witnessed fast development in the container business in the past decade, becoming one of the world's top 10 container shipping companies.

CSC statistics show that the company now holds more than 140 container ships with capacity of carrying 500,000 TEU containers. Of those, 84.2 percent are ships with capacity of 4,000 TEU containers, for a combined 10 million containers annually.

CSC now has 80 shipping routes to major destinations in Asia, Europe, America, Africa, Australia and the Persian Gulf, connecting to 81 agents and 300 sales outlets in over 100 countries and regions.