In the first week of December, Hamburg Süd’s 7 100-TEU capacity containership Santa Clara, the ship with the world’s biggest reefer capacity currently available (1 600 reefer plugs), docked in SA for the first time – in Port Elizabeth and then in Durban. With her nominal slot capacity and a length of around 300-metres, the Santa Clara is the largest vessel ever to have sailed under the Hamburg Süd flag. She was put into service at the Okpo yard in South Korea in September last year, the first of ten new Hamburg Süd containerships of the Santa class. She was then phased straight into the New Good Hope Express Service between Asia and South Africa/East Coast South America (Ecsa), which the line operates jointly with a partner. The other nine sister ships will follow by the end of 2012.
