Maersk Line is expecting
delivery of its first world
record-breaking 18 000-TEU
container vessel in June.
The vessels are due to be
delivered at intervals of four
to six weeks over two and a
half years starting mid-2013,
giving Maersk “enough [of
them] for a full Asia-Europe
stream by mid-2014”, said
Maersk head of Far East Asia
liner operations cluster, Brian
Noe Kristensen.
The mammoth freighters,
from Daewoo Shipbuilding &
Marine Engineering, weigh
52 859 tons, are 400 metres
long and 59 metres wide. The
vessels will be the world’s
largest box ships when they
hit water and will reduce
CO2 emissions by 50% per
container moved.
Pictured here is the
second stage of the assembly
which takes place over 65
days, putting the 425 threedimensional
blocks together
to form a complete ship. The
entire building process takes
375 days per vessel.
CAPTION
Photo: Maersk Line
