Ocean liner Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) announced that the sixth and last in its latest series of 21,413-TEU container ships called the G-Class group was christened at a ceremony held recently at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard on Geoje island in South Korea.
Named the OOCL Indonesia, the newbuild will begin her maiden voyage this month and join her five sister vessels on OOCL’s Asia-North Europe Loop 1 (LL1) trade lane.
“Over the years, the strength and competitiveness of OOCL’s fleet plays a very important role in the company’s business performance. We are very appreciative of our long-standing partnership with SHI and for their excellent support in completing our series of six ‘G Class’ containerships within a year’s time so that they can be deployed in our fleet when we needed them most,” said the Hong Kong-based shipping company in a release.
“The flexibility provided in our newbuilding program is one of the crucial elements to how we can better manage our fleet and operations in such a dynamic and challenging industry,” said Andy Tung, chief executive of OOCL, at the ceremony.
“Not only was the time factor a challenge, but the actual engineering feat in building the world’s largest containerships for the first time within the given period while incorporating the best and latest innovation and technologies is a monumental project not to be underestimated.”
In his ceremonial address, Tung said the celebration also marked a wonderful start to the new year in 2018 as the industry is seeing a much healthier global economic environment not seen in many years since the 2009 financial crisis, and that various governments around the world are continuing to fuel the growth momentum with policy agendas to boost trade and economic cooperation.
“In addition to China’s leadership in the One Belt One Road Initiative to help bring markets closer together and opening new opportunities for trade, another policy agenda closer to home is the signing of the Hong Kong-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement just last November,” said Tung.
“Once ratified, the new FTA arrangements will not only open opportunities for trade growth, but also facilitate more effective and efficient trade links through the elimination of import duties and streamlining of regulations that would inevitably help improve supply chain flow over the long run. In our industry, speed is of essence and we are very excited to see these kinds of policy directions pushing forward.”
The OOCL Indonesia has an overall length of 399.870 meters, breadth of 58.8 meters, depth of 32.5 meters, and designed draft of 14.5 meters. It will join its sisters OOCL Scandinavia, OOCL Hong Kong, OOCL Germany, OOCL Japan, and OOCL United Kingdom in serving the Asia-Europe trade lane on the LL1 service.
Her port rotation is Shanghai / Ningbo / Xiamen / Yantian / Singapore / via Suez Canal / Felixstowe / Rotterdam / Gdansk / Wilhelmshaven / Felixstowe / via Suez Canal / Singapore / Yantian / Shanghai in a 77-day round trip.
