German ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd has announced the christening of the ‘Al Jmeliyah’, a new 15,000 TEU container ship that will link Europe with the Far East.
The vessel was unveiled at Europe’s largest container port in Rotterdam, and will now join a group of ten “Ultra Large Container Vessels” in Hapag-Lloyd’s fleet.
In addition to this, the Al Jmeliyah is one of the 17 “LNG-ready” ships in Hapag-Lloyd’s fleet that are technically equipped to use liquefied natural gas.
Departing from Rotterdam, the vessel will sail to Hamburg, Antwerp, Southampton, Yantian, Shanghai, Busan, and Ningbo as part of the Far East 4 loop.
Find out more about Hapag-Lloyd's plans for the future by reading a Port Technology technical paper
Hapag-Lloyd offers 19 services to and from Rotterdam from the Far East, South America, Australia and the United States, and in 2017 handled more than 424,000 containers at the port
15,000 TEU container ship “Al Jmeliyah” christened in Rotterdam. Find all the details here: https://t.co/gE63wPb6ux pic.twitter.com/rPtcbnujza
— Hapag-Lloyd AG (@HapagLloydAG) September 11, 2018
Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, has commented on the industry’s progress since 2000, when the 4,890 TEU ‘Rotterdam Express’ was christened.
“Less than 20 years later, we are christening a ship here that is three times as big. This illustrates the huge changes in our industry in terms of capacities and technologies.”
Leo Ruijs, CEO of Hutchison Ports ECT Rotterdam, also made a statement: “We are very proud to be hosting this naming ceremony in the ECT Delta terminal, as it attests to the close relationship we have with Hapag-Lloyd.
“This relationship now stretches back almost 50 years. The first Hapag-Lloyd ship docked here in October 1968.”
The Al Jmeliyah was built in 2016 for the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC), which merged with Hapag-Lloyd in May 2017.