Hapag-Lloyd Names First of Five 10,500 TEU Box Ships
Hapag-Lloyd held a naming ceremony for the first of its five new vessels in its new 10,500 TEU class containerships, Valparaíso Express.
Valparaíso Express was named by Rozío Gonzaléz – wife of Andrónico Luksic, Chairman of the Board of the Quiñenco Group – who performed the ceremony at the Terminal Pacifico Sur (TPS) in the port of Valparaíso, where the new ship will call regularly going forward. The Quiñenco Group is the largest shareholder of CSAV, one of the three controlling shareholders of the Hapag-Lloyd.
The first vessel in the new Valparaíso Express class will sail in the revised Europe – South America West Coast service of Hapag-Lloyd in which four of the five newbuildings are replacing older Panmax ships, while a second Panmax size loop (SW2) and two slot charter agreements (EW1 and EW2) in the same trade lane will be terminated.
This way Hapag-Lloyd can deploy more efficient vessels between North Europe and South America West Coast without adding significant capacity to the market, the shipper said. The new SW is a premium service in this trade covering the major markets in North Europe, the Caribbean and West Coast South America.
The roundtrip of the Valparaíso Express will take nine weeks with the following port rotation: Rotterdam, London, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Caucedo, Cartagena, Manzanillo (Panama), Buenaventura, Callao, Puerto Angamos, Valparaíso, Callao, Buenaventura, Manzanillo (Panama), Cartagena, Caucedo and Rotterdam.
“The entry into the Post-Panmax ship class in this trade lane is ensuring that Hapag-Lloyd stays competitive as one of the market leaders after the expansion of the Panama Canal,” said Anthony J. Firmin, Chief Operating Officer at Hapag-Lloyd. “South America and especially Chile are very important markets for us and we will be able to serve particularly our reefer customers much better with the new ships.”
The second vessel from the series ordered in April 2015 was delivered to Hapag-Lloyd at the Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea. The remaining three ships are due for delivery by April next year.
Hapag-Lloyd said the five ships, each to sail under the German flag and be classified by DNVGL, will set high environmental standards and achieve particularly low figures for fuel consumption and emissions thanks to innovative on-board technology.
They are 333 meters long and 48 meters wide (maximum 19 rows of container side by side) and have a maximum capacity of 123,500 metric tons with a maximum draft of 14 meters. From keel to superstructure they measure a height of 63.5 meters. The eight cargo holds (nine tiers of containers) and decks (nine tiers of containers) feature a total capacity of up to 10,593 TEU including 2,100 plugs for reefer containers.