Slovenia’s Port of Koper welcomed recently MSC Paloma, which is said to be the largest container vessel that has entered the Adriatic Sea.
The 14,028 TEU boxship was built by South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) in 2010.
Until now, the record at the Port of Koper was held by MSC Luciana, which has a capacity of 11,600 TEU.
Although not the longest, MSC Paloma is with its breadth of 51 meters the widest container vessel ever moored in Koper, the port said.
The ship arrived from Piraeus and continued its journey to Trieste, where it arrived on December 14, 2016, according to the vessel’s AIS data
MSC Paloma is part of 2M alliance which is comprised of two shipping majors, Maersk and the Mediterranean Shipping company (MSC), and links North Adriatic with the Far East.
To be able to accommodate larger container vessels, the Port of Koper deepened the seabed in Basin I to 15 meters last year. In addition, two new super Post-Panamax container cranes, which will be able to handle ships with a capacity of up to 20,000 TEU, will start to operate next year, according to the port.
Additionally, the Port of Koper intends to enhance the container terminal capacity to 1.3 million TEU per year by 2020 by extending the Pier I.