Hapag-Lloyd names 8,750-TEU Tsingtao Express

Hapag-Lloyd names 8,750-TEU Tsingtao Express Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd on Friday named the 8,750-TEU Tsingtao Express at the Port of Qingdao in China for use on a weekly Asia/Europe service of the Grand Alliance.
   The 103,000-deadweight-ton ship is the second in a series of nine sister vessels being built by Hyundai Heavy Industries. The Tsingtao Express is the second of the series delivered so far this year and the last five will follow until 2008.
   The vessels are 335 meters (1,099 feet) long and 43 meters (141 feet) wide. The ships have 730 reefer plugs each for refrigerated containers and sailing speeds of 25 knots.
   “With the new ship, Hapag-Lloyd is responding to the economic growth in East Asia,” said Adolf Adrion, executive board member of Hapag-Lloyd. “China is the engine of the world economy and globalization, and thus also drives ocean shipping, which accounts for 90 percent of world trade.”
   The Hamburg-based shipping line now has a globally deployed fleet comprising about 140 ships capable of transporting a total of more than 467,000 boxes.