Preparations for the construction of a 24,000 teu containership, which is 5,000 teu bigger than the current largest vessel, are gearing up and could start in 2016, as forecast by Ocean Shipping Consultants (OSC).
These giants of the sea would feature 430m times 62m in size, although their draught would be kept at 16m.
Technical feasibility studies show that at-sea costs for a 24,000 teu vessel would be 23.1% lower than that of a 12,500 teu vessel and 17.4% lower than that of a 16,000 teu vessel, Seatrade Global quoted Andrew Penfold of Ocean Shipping Consultants as saying.
“We haven’t yet reached the limit of size of ships we’ll be dealing with.”
“ There is a worthwhile additional saving in shifting up to 24,000 teu vessels… Despite the wounds of overcapacity, further ordering of even larger vessels seems inevitable,” added Andrew Penfold.
The construction work on these colossal structures shall be undertaken by Korean shipbuilding yards, based on Penfold’s estimate.
The immediate result of the appearance of these ships would be surge in transhipment activity, which in turn could have a detrimental effect on terminal operators and ports as they would need to upgrade their capacity.
[mappress] World Maritime News Staff, July 1, 2014, Image: