"A BIG BASTARD" Number one

From a USA maritime newspaper.

By GREGORY RICHARDS, “The Virginian-Pilot”

It’s longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, wider than the width of a football field and it can officially hold 11,000 20-foot-long shipping containers, though some suggest it can pack in even more.

And it floats.

Next month, the Emma Maersk, the world’s largest container ship, will enter service between Asia and Europe, hauling toys, electronics, clothing, and whatever else can be packed into steel boxes. The vessel, bigger than an aircraft carrier, will hold 11,000 containers, at least 1,400 more containers than any of the other 3,700 container-carrying vessels now plying the seas. Its capacity will greatly exceed the size of vessels regularly calling on the port of Hampton Roads; those vessels typically can hold between 4,000 and 5,000 20-foot-long containers.

Yet industry experts say Maersk’s figure understates the ship’s true capacity. Based on its 1,303-foot length and 184-foot width, they estimate it could carry up to nearly 15,000 20-foot containers.

Still, don’t expect the Emma Maersk or a similar-sized vessel in Hampton Roads any time soon, owing to geography and port capacities.

Container ships have ballooned in size to accommodate rapid growth in global trade. The amount of cargo carried in containers has grown by about 9.5 percent every year since the early 1990s, and it’s expected to maintain that pace “well into the next decade,” Tozer said. With the bigger vessels, ship owners are also able to lower the cost of moving each container by spreading expenses – such as for the crew and fuel – over more boxes.

"EMMA MAERSK"

The red square things stacked on the wharf are her hatch covers, like all ships of her ilk the hatch covers can only be handled by the large shoreside cranes.

Dimensions: 1,303 feet in length, 184 feet in width, 207 feet in height and a draft of 51 feet

Engine: 14-cylinder diesel engine producing 110,000 brake horsepower

Cost: Estimated at more than $145 million

Crew size: 13 people

Service speed: 27 knots (about 31 miles per hour)

Route: Asia-to-Europe service with a round trip of 63 days, calling on ports in China, Japan, England, Sweden and the Netherlands, among other countries

Shipyard: Odense Steel Shipyard, Denmark

Notice the big tug is dwarfed by just the boulbous bow!

Consider how much the ships have grown. The first container-carrying vessel, the Ideal X, carried 58 boxes on its first voyage in 1956 from Newark, N.J., to Houston.

In 1998, the Regina Maersk, then one of the world’s largest container ships, docked in Hampton Roads as part of a tour to highlight the need for deeper shipping channels and more expansive cargo terminals on the East Coast to handle larger vessels. The Regina Maersk holds 6,000 20-foot containers.

Just last month, Lloyd’s Register touted the newly built Xin Los Angeles as being the “world’s largest container ship.” The vessel, owned by China Shipping Container Lines, will carry 9,600 20-foot containers between Asia and Europe. It will have that title until September, when the Emma Maersk begins servicing ports in such countries as China, Japan, England, Sweden and the Netherlands.

No ships larger than the Emma Maersk are expected for some time, say industry watchers. One reason is that shipyards are already clogged with work and likely won’t be accepting new orders until 2009, said Gary Ferrulli, president of Global Logistics and Transport Consulting in Chandler, Ariz. The vessels ordered can carry between 9,000 and 10,000 20-foot containers, he said.

For instance, Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., an Israeli line whose North American headquarters are in Norfolk, announced in June that it has ordered four ships capable of moving 10,000 20-foot containers.

Also, there may be little reason to go much bigger than the Emma Maersk, Tozer said. Bigger vessels can be constructed, but there would be very few ports around the globe with shipping lanes deep enough to permit their passage and cranes large enough to service them, he said.

Another problem for mega-ships: keeping them filled, especially should a downturn occur with international trade. Running a ship half-empty is not cheap, he said.

“We believe that she, and her future sisters, are the largest container ships likely to be seen for some time,” Tozer said of the Emma Maersk.

Maersk Line, a unit of the Danish conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, will churn out 10 identical sister ships to the Emma Maersk at its own shipyard in Denmark, Ferrulli said. The next ship should arrive at the end of September with another vessel being delivered every four months until the order is complete. Maersk Line, the world’s largest container carrier, confirmed in a written response to questions that sister ships to the Emma Maersk are planned, but spokeswoman Mary Ann Kotlarich said she didn’t have any information to share beyond that.

Such jumbo haulers are initially destined for the Asia-to-Europe trade lane because that’s the longest shipping route, making it the most logical place to try to lessen operating costs, Tozer said. After that, they could be used in routes from Asia to the West Coast, the location of the two biggest U.S. ports.

Bringing these container ships to the East Coast is problematic because they can’t fit through the Panama Canal, necessitating a longer journey through Egypt’s Suez Canal, even if the Panama Canal’s planned expansion is completed as scheduled in 2014, Tozer said. Also, many East Coast ports don’t have shipping channels deep enough to handle such ships .

The Emma Maersk would be a tight squeeze but could fit into the port of Hampton Roads, said Joe Harris, spokesman for the Virginia Port Authority, the state agency that owns three Hampton Roads marine cargo terminals. The authority’s cranes can stretch across the 22 rows of containers on such ships. While the port’s shipping lane is 50 feet deep and the Emma Maersk sits 51 feet in the water, the ship would be able to enter the port fully loaded at high tide, Harris said.

“We’re not sweating it because we are the only port on the East Coast that has 50 feet of water,” Harris said.

Maersk’s sister company, APM Terminals, is building a $450 million cargo handling facility in Portsmouth that’s scheduled to open in July. There are no plans to bring the Emma Maersk to that facility, according to Maersk.

For all its size, the Emma Maersk is not the world’s biggest ship. That honor belongs to the Knock Nevis, a Norwegian-owned supertanker that is 1,502.6 feet long and 226.1 feet wide.