Hong Kong-based container shipping company Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has christened OOCL Indonesia, a 21,413 TEU boxship newbuilding.
The christening ceremony was held at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard on Geoje island on January 17.
The ship, which has a length of 399.87 meters and a width of 58.8 meters, is the sixth and the last in a series of the company’s six 21,000+ TEU class ultra large container vessels (ULCVs).
OOCL Indonesia will begin its maiden voyage this month and join its five sister vessels on OOCL’s Asia-North Europe Loop 1 (LL1) trade lane. In a 77-day round trip, its port rotation is: Shanghai / Ningbo / Xiamen / Yantian / Singapore / via Suez Canal / Felixstowe / Rotterdam / Gdansk / Wilhelmshaven / Felixstowe / via Suez Canal / Singapore / Yantian / Shanghai.
On the occasion of the christening ceremony, Andy Tung, Chief Executive of OOCL , said: “The flexibility provided in our newbuilding program is one of the crucial elements to how we can better manage our fleet and operations in such a dynamic and challenging industry.”
Tung further said that the celebration also marked a “wonderful start” to the new year in 2018 as the industry is seeing a much healthier global economic environment not seen in many years since the 2009 financial crisis, and that various governments around the world are continuing to fuel the growth momentum with policy agendas to boost trade and economic cooperation.
“In addition to China’s leadership in the One Belt One Road Initiative to help bring markets closer together and opening new opportunities for trade, another policy agenda closer to home is the signing of the Hong Kong-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement just last November,” Tung added.
“Once ratified, the new FTA arrangements will not only open opportunities for trade growth, but also facilitate more effective and efficient trade links through the elimination of import duties and streamlining of regulations that would inevitably help improve supply chain flow over the long run. In our industry, speed is of essence and we are very excited to see these kinds of policy directions pushing forward,” Tung pointed out.