News Release

20th April 2006

The World’s Biggest Container Ship calls at the Port of Felixstowe


20-Apr-2006

On Thursday 20th April 2006 the Port of Felixstowe welcomed the inaugural call of world’s largest containership, the COSCO Ningbo.

At 9449 TEU the giant container vessel has the highest declared capacity of any ship currently in operation, and has a gross tonnage of 109,149, a length of 351m and a breadth of 42.8m. She is part of COSCO’s new fleet of ships designed to cope with the ever-growing trade from China, and was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries.

She will operate on the Asia Europe 1 (AE1) service. With the introduction of bigger capacity ships, the AE1 service now becomes the sixth highest capacity provider in the Asia/Europe trade. The rotation of the service is Shanghai-Dalian-Qingdao-Singapore-PortSaid-Rotterdam-Felixstowe-Hamburg-Antwerp-Singapore-Hong Kong-Shanghai.

Chris Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited, owner of the Port of Felixstowe, commented:

“The decision by Government to allow both the Felixstowe South Reconfiguration and a new development at Bathside Bay shows recognition of the need for extra deep water capacity to cope with ever growing levels of trade. Vessels such as the COSCO Ningbo will become a regular sight in the near future as the shipping industry continues to seek more efficient ways of transporting goods. We have to make sure that we can accommodate vessels such as the COSCO Ningbo here in Felixstowe, or else we will lose out to foreign ports”

The previous holder of the record, the 9,200 TEU MSC Pamela, is a regular caller at Felixstowe, having made her maiden call at the port in August 2005.