South Korea's STX Shipbuilding on Wednesday announced it has designed a 22,000-TEU containership that it claims will reduce per container shipping costs by 40 percent.
The 460-meter-long, 60-meter-wide ship would become the largest of its type. It will be available in one- or two-propeller configurations and be capable of speeds of between 24 to 26 knots. The deck surface will be about the size of four soccer fields.
"We have done a thorough research to ensure that this ship will not exceed the length and width restrictions of the world's major ports and even if deployed now, will be compatible with major east/west shipping routes," STX said in a statement translated for Shippers' NewsWire.
"By using Korean ingenuity and technological know-how, we were able to break through what was thought to be the technological and economical limit of the 20,000-TEU containership."
Since the turn of the century -- when the largest container ships barely topped 7,000 TEUs -- the world's shipowners have been busy ordering ever-larger boxship to take advantage of the economies of scale they offer. The biggest now in operation are A.P. Moller - Maersk's series of eight “PS” class ships built at its shipyard in Lindo, Denmark.
First launched in August 2006 with the Emma Maersk, the dimensions of the Maersk leviathans are 398 meters long and 56.4 meters wide. Maersk rates the ships with a loadable capacity of 11,000 TEUs but analysts such as AXS-Alphaliner have set the figure far higher at close to 15,000 TEUs
Another Korean yard, Samsung Heavy Industries, last year unveiled plans for a 400-meter-long 16,000-TEU vessel.
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