MSC Takes Delivery of MSC Tessa, One of the World’s Largest Containerships

Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group has delivered one of the world’s largest containerships to MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company.

The MSC Tessa is one of only a handful of ships to crack the 24,000 TEU mark and the first in MSC’s fleet. With a capacity of 24,116 TEUs, it surpasses Evergreen’s 24,004 TEU A-class vessels, which includes the first 24,000+ TEU vessel Ever Alot, but falls just short of the recently delivered OOCL Spain with it’s capacity of 24,118 TEUs.

The OOCL Spain was built at the Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering shipyard in Nantong, China and is the first vessel in a series of six under construction.

According to China state-affiliated media, MSC Tessa was handed over on Thursday at the Changxing Shipbuilding Base in Shanghai. Delivery was confirmed by China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), which said the delivery solidifies CSSC’s leading role in the field of ultra-large containership construction.

MSC Tessa measures 399.99 meters in length with a beam of 61.5 meters. It is one of four ultra-large containerships on order at Hudong Zhonghua for MSC, the world’s largest container shipping operator.

MSC has supposedly even bigger ships on order, the MSC Irina and MSC Loreto, having a reported capacity of 24,346 TEUs. They are the first in a series of six vessels under construction at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding in China.

Hudong Zhonghua is part of China State Shipbuilding Corporation.