Samsung Heavy Industries is again renewing its record for building the world's largest container ship, leading the 20,000 TEU "mega container ship" market.
Samsung Heavy said it completed the construction of the first of six 23,000 TEU-class container ships it won in September 2017 from Swiss shipping company MSC(Mediterranean Shipping Company), about three weeks earlier than the contract date, and the ship successfully set sail on July 6.
Named "MSC GÜLSÜN", the vessel is a super-large container vessel that can carry 23,756 20-foot containers at once, with a length of 400 meters, width of 61.5 meters and height of 33.2 meters. It is the largest container ship built in the world to date.
One 20-foot container is about 6.1 meters long, and if 23,756 containers are connected in a single row, it is 145 kilometers long, equivalent to a straight line distance from Seoul to Daejeon. In other words, the entire line of containers from Seoul to Daejeon can be transported by the vessel constructed this time at once.
In addition, the vessel is equipped with Samsung Heavy Industries' next-generation smartship system called "SVESSEL," which enables safe and economical operation, and is designed to be easily converted into LNG-fueled vessels as well as to install a scrubber to cope with regulations on sulfur oxide emissions.
Meanwhile, Samsung Heavy has been leading the expansion of container ships since the 1990s. It developed the world's first 6,200-TEU class in 1990, when 5,000 TEUs were dominant, followed by 7,700 TEUs in 2000 and 8,100 TEUs in 2002.
In 2004, the company succeeded in developing 12,000 TEU container ships and doubled its load in five years. In 2015, it won four 20,100 TEU container ships from Japan's MOL, opening the era of 20,000 TEU container ships for the first time in the world.
Samsung Heavy Industries is continuing its reputation by again breaking the world's largest record in the field with the latest delivery of a 23,000-TEU container ship.
"We have been leading the expansion of container ships based on various testing facilities such as the world's largest towing tank and excellent research personnel owned by Samsung Heavy Industries," said an official of Samsung Heavy Industries, adding, "We will continue to secure leadership in the mega container ship market by actively targeting container ships with 20,000 TEU or higher that will be ordered in the second half of this year."
