Inaugural Stopover of The Mega Container Ship < HMM OSLO >

On its inaugural voyage, the container ship HMM OSLO will call at Port du Havre this June 30. Of type megamax 24 (24 bays and 24 rows), the new ship of Korean armaments HMM (partner of the THE consortium Alliance since April 2020) is the first built by Samsung Heavy lndustries and the second in its future fleet of twelve giants (after the HMM Algesiras released the previous month from the other Korean shipyard, Daewoo Shipping & Marine Engineering's Okpo), HMM Oslo is 400 meters long and 61.50 meters wide for a maximum draft of 16.50m. 

It has a capacity of 23,792 TEU, only 172 TEU less than its predecessor, the HMM ALGESIRAS (23,964 TEU) which remains to this day the largest container ship in the world. For Baptiste Maurand, managing director of HAROPA - Port du Havre, the first container port at the service of French foreign trade is proud to welcome this new giant of the seas: "Port 2000 was designed to accommodate these larger vessels 24/7. 

This infrastructure is a strength for Le Havre which, at this day, is one of the rare large ports in Northern Europe to offer suitable nautical conditions for container ships in this category at full load". This is one of the reasons for which the largest maritime alliances in the world choose to place Le Havre on the map of their rotations: in the post-Covid context, he adds, this stopover is particularly symbolic and testifies to this renewed confidence of armaments in the port of Le Havre".

For Jeremy Kim, Managing Director HMM France,"these Megamax-24 ships are ground-breaking, not just in their size, but in world leading environmental performance too. Their optimised hull design and highly energy-efficient engines make a significant leap forward in reducing CO2 and other emissions. It's all part of our long-term goal to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions across our container fleet by 2050". 

The HMM OSLO is assigned to the service operated within the framework of the THE Alliance consortium (HMM, Hapag Lloyd, ONE and Yang Ming) on the Asia-Europe FE2 service. HMM Oslo started its rotation on 8 May in Busan, and continued with stops in Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian and Singapore, then set course on northern Europe. The Havre stopover is made at the Terminal de France which is operated by General of Port Handling (GMP). He will stay there until July 1. 

< Korea Shipping Gazette >