VIDEO: 24,188 TEU behemoth OOCL Spain makes debut call in Hamburg

May 9, 2023, by Fatima Bahtić

One of the largest Megamax containerships in the world, OOCL Spain, has made a debut port call in Hamburg.

As informed, the vessel visited the Port of Hamburg’s Container Terminal Tollerort on 1 May. Owned by Hong Kong-based container shipping company Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), the boxship has a capacity of 24,188 TEU.

OOCL Spain has a length of 399.9 metres and a breadth of 61.3 metres. This scale places the colossal boxship among the largest container ships in the world (as measured by carrying capacity).

The delivery ceremony for the ship took place this February.

Built by Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering, its owners see the vessel as being especially notable for the quantity of the very latest ‘intelligent’ technology on board. This entails the capture of immense data quantities to optimize the ship’s operation.

The company expects that this will lead to improvements in fuel efficiency, and supports monitoring of both technical state and sustained safe ship operation. Classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has awarded OOCL Spain three ‘Smart Ship’ certificates.

“The call by the ‘OOCL Spain’ has cemented the trend for more and more Megamax vessels to call at the Port of Hamburg. It is obviously crucial that we should maintain our waterway in good condition, if we are to remain competitive,” said CEO Axel Mattern of Port of Hamburg Marketing.

“We are delighted that with our new Megamax vessels, the largest in the OOCL fleet are calling the Port of Hamburg. The LL3 service enables us to offer our clientele optimal connections between Hamburg and leading ports in Asia, complemented at the outset by a call at the Abu Dhabi hub,” said Jan Schmahl, Managing Director NE Europe for OOCL Ltd.

Last year, a total of 234 calls by Megamax containerships – with over 18.000 TEU – in the Port of Hamburg represented an increase of six percent. Initial trends indicate that this tendency has been confirmed during the first quarter of 2023.

OOCL Spain, named in February, has since March operated on the Asia-Europe LL3 service, serving the ports of Shanghai, Xiamen, Nansha, Hong Kong, Yantian, Cai Mep, Singapore, Piraeus, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrügge, Valencia, Piraeus, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Shanghai on rotation in 84 days.