On October 23rd, Swiss shipping giant Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) held a naming ceremony for the world’s largest 24,116 TEU class ultra-large container ship “MSC METTE” in Fos-sur-Mer, France.
In July this year, “MSC METTE” was successfully delivered by Jiangnan Shipbuilding under CSSC, which is the third vessel in a series of four vessels. The first vessel “MSC RAYA” was officially delivered on March 30, the second vessel “MSC NICOLA MASTRO” was named and delivered on June 15, and the fourth vessel “MSC CHINA” was delivered on October 9th.
Last month, Hudong-Zhonghua also delivered a 24,116 TEU ultra-large container vessel “MSC CLAUDE GIRARDET” to MSC, which is the fourth vessel of the same type delivered to MSC and the last vessel of the Mediterranean Project. The Mediterranean Project commenced construction on 7/30/2021.
Designed by Hudong-Zhonghua under CSSC and classed by DNV. This series of vessels has an overall length of 399.99 meters, a beam of 61.5 meters and a depth of 33.2 meters, with a deck area of nearly four standard soccer fields, a maximum number of stacking floors of up to 25 floors, which is equivalent to the height of 22-storey building, and a capacity of 24,116 containers, which is currently the world’s largest class of container vessels in terms of loading capacity.
The vessel is equipped with hybrid Scrubber desulphurization device, as well as unique small bulbous bow, large diameter propeller and energy-saving conduit. Also, by adopting the air bubble drag reduction system for the first time, it not only effectively reduces the total energy consumption of the ship, but also reduces the carbon emission of the corresponding total amount by 3%-4%, which can be reduced by more than 6,000 tons in a whole year; and by adopting the axle-belt generator system for the first time, it is able to effectively reduce the fuel oil consumption, optimize the fuel oil consumption and the ship’s Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI), and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
According to statistics, so far, China Shipbuilding Group’s Jiangnan Shipbuilding and Hudong-Zhonghua two shipbuilding enterprises have been completed and delivered a total of 13 of the world’s largest 24,000 TEU-class ultra-large container ships, of which eight for the MSC.