A capacity of 24,188 TEU makes the Megamax containership ‘OOCL Spain’ one of the world’s largest containerships.

With the ‘OOCL Spain’, on 1 May one of the world’s largest Megamax-containerships called at the Port of Hamburg’s Container Terminal Tollerort. Owned by OOCL – Orient Overseas Container Line, the vessel has a capacity of 24,188 TEU.

These dimensions are comparable with those of the largest Megamax containerships in the world. The ‘OOCL Spain’ has a length of 399.9 metres and a breadth of 61.3 metres. Built by Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering, her 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. This leads to improvements in fuel efficiency, and supports monitoring of both technical state and sustained safe ship operation. The ABS – American Bureau of Shipping – has awarded the ‘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,” says CEO Axel Mattern of Port of Hamburg Marketing. Last year, a toal 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.

“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. In addition, we are now able to react more flexibly to our customers’ requirements in respect of temperature-controlled containers as well as project cargo – with oversize items welcome,” says Jan Schmahl, Managing Director NE Europe for OOCL Ltd.

The ‘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.