The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) received delivery of the world’s largest containership in terms of carrying capacity. The MSC IRINA, with a capacity of 24,346 TEU, was delivered to the Bank Of Communications Financial Leasing, which will lease the ship to MSC.
The delivery took place in Zhoushan, China, on the same day that the MSC TESSA was also delivered in Shanghai. The MSC TESSA, another ship with a carrying capacity of over 24,000 TEU, has been added to MSC’s fleet as part of its capacity expansion. More than a dozen such ships are expected to join MSC’s fleet in the coming months.
The MSC IRINA will begin service on March 21st and will depart from Qingdao on March 23rd. Its first stop will be in Busan, South Korea, followed by five ports in China before proceeding to the Suez Canal. The vessel will then visit Italy and Spain in the Mediterranean before heading to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, after which it will return to Asia.
The shipyard also reported that the MSC IRINA was built quickly, remaining in dry dock for only 144 days. Work on the vessel began on November 29th, 2021, and it was floated out on October 29th of the following year.
The MSC IRINA was built at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, which will construct five more sister ships of the same class. All ships in the class will be equipped with air lubrication technology, large-diameter propellers, energy-saving ducts, scrubbers, and shaft generation systems. The shipyard estimates that these ships will emit 3-4% less carbon compared to traditional vessels.
Source: FleetMon
