MSC Isabella, one of the new ships from MSC’s Gülsün-Class of container vessels, made its maiden call at the Port of Singapore on 10 November 2019. The Gülsün-Class is currently the world’s largest series of container ships.

To date, MSC Isabella is the biggest container ship to call at Singapore, the world’s top transshipment hub. Measuring around 400 metres long and 61 metres wide, the ship can carry up to 24 rows of containers, with a height of 13 tiers on deck. Its total capacity is 23,656 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units). Its length exceeds that of the Eiffel Tower and it can transport the equivalent of about 384 million pairs of shoes.

Singapore is the ship’s first port-of-call in Asia after sailing back from Europe. The ship was delivered to MSC in August 2019. It started sailing from the Qingdao port on 28 August and has now completed its first round-trip between Asia and Europe.

“Our biggest and most energy efficient ships are being deployed on the Asia-Europe trade, which demonstrates our continued commitment to this largest and busiest trade corridor. We are delighted to welcome the first port call in Singapore by MSC Isabella from our largest Gülsün-Class of ships,” said Mr YJ Tan, Regional Managing Director for MSC Asia Regional Office in Singapore.

Aside from its capacity, the vessel is equipped to carry more than 2,000 refrigerated containers, boosting the trade of goods such as food & beverage, pharmaceutical products, perishables and other chilled or frozen items between Asia and Europe.

Mr Eddy Ng, Managing Director for PSA Singapore Terminals 2, said, “We are heartened by the arrival of MSC Isabella at MSC-PSA Asia Terminal in Singapore. It affirms the strong commitment and steadfast partnership between PSA and MSC, while also demonstrating PSA’s capability to efficiently handle the world’s largest container vessels, further enhancing the status of the Port of Singapore as a premier global transshipment and logistics hub.”

An addition to MSC’s growing green fleet

MSC Isabella belongs to the series of the most energy-efficient ships in MSC’s fleet of container vessels, with the lowest carbon footprint per container carried by design. A combination of the latest green technologies and greater economies of scale have helped reduce energy requirements over time. For example, the optimised shape of the ship’s bulbous bow and rudder bulb lower resistance while sailing, further enhancing energy efficiency.

Sustainability and the environment have increasingly been in the global spotlight, especially as the shipping industry gets ready for the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 Sulphur Cap enhanced regulation. Starting from 1 January 2020, international shipping industry must further reduce Sulphur dioxide emissions to help improve air quality.

MSC Isabella is already fitted with the technical solution to comply with this new regulation, an IMO-approved hybrid Exhaust Gas Cleaning System, and it has the option of switching to low-Sulphur fuel, or to be adapted for liquefied natural gas (LNG) use in the future.

Built at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in South Korea, MSC Isabella is among the 11 ships of over 23,000 TEU to be delivered to MSC from 2019 to 2020. Deployed on MSC’s Swan service, the vessel will next call at the Port of Hong Kong after leaving Singapore.