Hapag-Lloyd Names New 10,500 TEU Containership for Europe-South America Trade

Hapag-Lloyd’s MV Valparaíso Express. Image credit: Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd on Wednesday held a naming ceremony for the Valparaíso Express, the first of five new 10,500 TEU class post-panamax containerships to enter service between North Europe and South America’s west coast.

“The entry into the Post-Panmax ship class in this trade lane is ensuring that Hapag-Lloyd stays competitive as one of the market leaders after the expansion of the Panama Canal,” said Anthony J. Firmin, Chief Operating Officer at Hapag-Lloyd. “South America and especially Chile are very important markets for us and we will be able to serve particularly our reefer customers much better with the new ships.”

All five ships will sail under the German flag and are classified by DNV GL. They measure 333 meters long and 48 meters wide (max. 19 rows of container side by side) and have a maximum capacity of 123,500 tonnes with a max. draft of 14 meters. From keel to superstructure they measure a height of 63.5 meters. The eight cargo holds (9 tiers of containers) and decks (9 tiers of containers) feature a total capacity of up to 10,593 TEU including 2,100 plugs for reefer containers.

Hapag-Lloyd says the five vessels will set highest environmental standards and achieve particularly low figures for fuel consumption and emissions thanks to innovative on-board technology.

The second vessel from the series ordered in April 2015 was delivered to Hapag-Lloyd today at the Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea. The remaining three ships are due for delivery by April next year.

Four of the five newbuildings are replacing older Panmax ships sailing in Hapag-Lloyd’s revised Europe – South America West Coast service. The roundtrip of the “Valparaíso Express” will take nine weeks with the following port rotation: Rotterdam, London, Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Caucedo, Cartagena, Manzanillo (Panama), Buenaventura, Callao, Puerto Angamos, Valparaíso, Callao, Buenaventura, Manzanillo (Panama), Cartagena, Caucedo and Rotterdam.

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