COSCO gets first 7,500-TEU ship

COSCO gets first 7,500-TEU ship    The first 7,500-TEU “super-post-Panamax” containership of COSCO Container Lines will be christened Friday at the Ulsan shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea.
   The “COSCO Long Beach” will be owned by Hamburg-based non-operating owner Nordcapital and chartered by COSCO for 10 years. The 7,500-TEU ship, the first of five of this size to be operated by COSCO, will be deployed in the transpacific trade after its delivery at the end of July.
   “It is the first ship of this size to be operated by a Chinese shipping company,” Nordcapital and COSCO said in a joint statement. The “COSCO Long Beach” can sail at more than 25 knots and can carry 17 rows of containers stowed side by side on deck. It has a length of 300 meters, a width of 42.8 meters, a draught of 14.5 meters and a deadweight of 92,900 deadweight tons.
   COSCO will also charter ships of 8,500 TEUs from Nordcapital from the year 2006 onwards.