HANJIN Heavy Industries & Construction – Philippines (HHIC-Phil Inc.) has proven its excellence as a global shipbuilder by delivering a 21,000-TEU ultra-large container ship.

On January 26, the Korean shipbuilder announced that it handed over a 21,000-TEU container carrier to CMA CGM, the largest shipping company in France. The containership is one of the three vessels that the French firm placed order. The handover & signing ceremony will be held at Subic Shipyard with the attendance of the management of CMA CGM and officials from the shipbuilder.

The container vessel ordered by the French shipper with HANJIN in 2015 is an ultra-large container ship (ULCS) which can carry 21,000 containers at a time. It measures 400 meters in length, 59 meters in width and 33 meters in depth. Its deck is as big as four soccer fields put together. If the piled containers are lined up one after another, they can reach up to Pyeongchang from Seoul (127km).

In general, if a container carrier is large, transportation costs are reduced, improving profitability and operating efficiency. As competition becomes fiercer in shipping market, the economies of scale have become more important such as M&A among container shipping companies. As a result, container ships have become larger and larger.

To win a bid for the ULCS, HHIC-Phil took advantage of its largest dock in the world (size of 550 meters x 135 meters on the 300㎡ land). This dock is large enough to build two 21,000TEU container ships at the same time with cutting-edge facilities and outstanding production capacity.

In particular, to secure hull stability which is most important in building the ULCS, fatigue design life was extended, and hull structure was reinforced, using enhanced carbon plate. With continued R&Ds, the best ULCS was built.
 
In addition, new engine with good fuel economy and energy-saving apparatus were installed, and the production of pollutants was considerably reduced. Therefore, the ship gave a great impression to the client.

An official from HHIC-Phil said, “Right now, there are only few companies which are capable of building ULCS around the globe”. He continued, “HHIC-Phil has proven its excellence again as a global shipbuilder with the handover of the 21,000-TEU container carrier”.

HHIC-Phil built and delivered its first ship in 2009. Since then, the shipbuilding company has constructed and handed over a total of 113 ships until now. The remaining two 21,000 container ships will also be built and handed over to the client by the end of this year.