Danish shipping company Maersk Line christened on July 13 the Marchen Maersk—one of the largest ships in its fleet and among the most advanced vessels at sea—at a ceremony in Felixstowe, UK.
The Marchen Maersk is the 19th Triple-E type container ship to be named out of 20 such vessels first announced in 2011. Like its peers, it is almost 400 meters long and capable of carrying 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
The Triple-E stands for energy efficiency, economy of scale, and environmentally improved, and operates on Maersk Line’s Asia-Europe services.
On June 2, a new order was placed for second-generation Triple-Es, which will enter service between April 2017 and May 2018. Valued at US$1.8 billion, the newbuilding contract calls for 11 container vessels with a capacity of 19,630 TEUs, with the option to order six more of the same. The newbuilds will be about 400 meters long and 58.6 meters wide, and have a draft of 16.5 meters.
The Marchen Maersk’s previous port of call was Rotterdam, and it started its maiden voyage in South Korea at the beginning of June. It now departs for Port Tangier, before heading back to the Far East, where it will call Malaysia, China, and South Korea.
