Hamburg Sud christens two mega box ships

On May 23, 2013, Hamburg Sud celebrated the double christening of its container ships "Cap San Nicolas" and "Cap San Marco" at the Hyundai Heavy Industries yard in Ulsan, South Korea.

With a nominal slot capacity of 9,600 TEU, the two newbuildings are Hamburg Sud's largest-ever vessels and, with 2,100 reefer plugs, the ships with the largest reefer capacity worldwide at present.

HHI said the maximum capacity of these ships is 10,500 TEU. The ship of "Cap San" class has an overall length of 333.2 meters, breadth of 48.2 meters, and a maximum draught of 14 meters.

The sponsor of the "Cap San Nicolas" is Narcisa Oetker, wife of Ferdinand Oetker, Partner in Dr. August Oetker KG and Director of Bankhaus Lampe. The "Cap San Marco" was christened by Doris Deichmann, wife of Fred Deichmann, Managing Director of Hamburg Sud subsidiary Columbus Shipmanagement GmbH.

The container ships are the first of a series of six newbuildings of the new "Cap San" class. After her delivery the "Cap San Nicolas" will be phased into the shipping group's liner service between Asia and South America East Coast in June. The "Cap San Marco" is to be deployed in the same service in July.

"With our investments in these new ships we are steadily enhancing our service quality to make sure our customers' cargo reaches the desired destination safely and on schedule." said Dr Ottmar Gast, Chairman of the Executive Board of Hamburg Sud.

Two more "Cap San" ships will be delivered at the Korean yard this current year. The last two units of this series are then due to be handed over to Hamburg Sud in January 2014. < Korea Shipping Gazette >