OOCL recently unveiled its first ultra large containership (ULC) in South Korea, dubbing it the OOCL Hong Kong. With a carrying capactiy of 21,413 TEU and measuring 400m long and 58.8m wide, the ship is the third ULC introducted into operation this year. It comes after Maersk and MOL received their ultra large containerships back in March and April respectively.

Hong Kong based carrier OOCL is expected to receive another five ships of a similar size before the end of the year is out. OOCL chief executive Andy Tung said that the company would stick to the delivery schedules for those five vessels, despite the delay of six 20,000 TEU ships from 2018 to 2019 recently announced by its Ocean Alliance partner COSCO Shipping Lines.

Mr Tung advised that "faced with increasing competition and unending pressure on costs, we need to take the bold step in operating larger size ships of quality and high efficiency in order to stay relevant and compete effectively as a major container shipping company.”

The port rotation will be Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Yantian, Singapore, via Suez Canal, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Gdansk, Wilhelmshaven, Felixstowe, via Suez Canal, Singapore, Yantian, Shanghai.