Industry sources said that Hanjin Shipping Co. plans to start operation of a 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) vessel by early next month at the latest, which would make it the largest container ship used by a local company.
TEU is a standard measure used for capacity in container transportation around the world.
The ship built by Samsung Heavy Industries is 350 meters long, 45.6 meters wide and 62 meters high, and has a price tag of 126 billion won (US$104.8 million). It has already been launched and is undergoing final fitting out prior to delivery.
The new ship is the first of five Hanjin is set to receive from a deal the company struck in 2006. Hanjin currently operates 96 container ships.
Denmark's Maersk, the world's largest container shipping company, operates 12,000 TEU and 13,000 TEU vessels, far different from South Korean businesses, which have concentrated on smaller vessels up until now.
Hanjin is expected to use the new super-large vessels to ship goods to the large North American and European markets.
It had originally planned to acquire the ship in February, but held back due to weak demand for cargo at the time, as countries around the world struggled to shake off last year's economic lethargy.//Yonhap
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com