How big is a cargo ship? Big! While shipping lines are looking for cost-saving options for the transport of shipping containers, the freighters leaving the shipyards keep getting bigger and bigger. Every few months, the title “biggest container ship” gets awarded anew and the container ship sizes increase.
The „MSC Zoe“ of the shipping line „Mediterranean Shipping Company“ (MSC) has almost the size of four soccer fields. She is the world’s biggest container ship: A length of 395.40 meters, a width of 59 meters and a loading capacity of 19,224 shipping containers. With these measurements, she replaced the CSCL Globe of the shipping line Container Lines. With a capacity of 200 container ships less she had the title “biggest container ship” for seven months.
At the same time, the shipping line MSC should not expect to be able to defend the title much longer, as on the search for possible savings the shipping lines trust into rising ship sizes to increase the freight transport volume and to save marine diesel. And therefore the capacity of container ships keeps rising and the title “biggest container ship” gets awarded almost annually and often within few months to competing shipping lines.
How many containers fit on a container ship?
Before the CSCL Globe got beaten by the MSC Zoe, in 2012 the EMMA Maersk of the shipping line Maerks got beaten by the Marco Polo of shipping line CMA CGM and this one got beaten in 2013 by the Maerks Mc-Kinney Moller of the shipping line Maersk. In a period of five years, the capacity of shipping containers which shipping line freighters can load is increasing by almost 30 percent on average. The engineers and developers of the technical assessment organization DNV GL think that even a capacity of 24,000 won’t be impossible – even though the shipping lines’ ships have already reached a size that makes it impossible to rescue the giant ships and their freight with cranes. So we can expect the size of container ships to increase.
Shipping lines have to accept detours for the freight
In addition, the loaded ships are so heavy that they cannot moor in every port when fully loaded and they are so big that they cannot drive on all trading routes. These are decisive factors for shipping lines, which is why these restrictions have even influenced the names of the biggest freighter types: “Postpanamax” and “Capesize” ships they call the sea giants that don’t fit through the Panama or Suez Canal when transporting cargo. Therefore shipping lines have to accept detours over the Cape Hoorn and the Cape of Good Hope to ship their freight. At the same time, the neighboring countries of the profitable canals draw their conclusions in order to remain attractive for the shipping lines for their cargo transport. Just last Sunday the extension of the Panama Canal has been finished after nine years of construction.
Since the shipping lines have been commissioning bigger ships with increasing loading capacity for years and there are already signs for a successor for the MSC Zoe. The shipping line CMA CGM wants to enter the water with a freighter with a loading capacity of 20,600 shipping containers in 2017. And for the Japanese shipping yard Imabari a so far unknown shipping line is producing eleven freighters that are supposed to be able to transport more than 20,000 shipping containers as well.
