Hapag-Lloyd names latest 8,750-TEU ship

Hapag-Lloyd names latest 8,750-TEU ship    Hapag-Lloyd Friday in Yokohama named the latest of its new-generation mega-containerships, the 8,750-TEU “Kyoto Express.”
   The 103,000 deadweight ton vessel was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea and has a length of 335 meters (1,099 feet) and a width of 43 meters (141 feet). The ship’s diesel engine has a speed of 25 knots.
   The “Kyoto Express” will join its sister-ship “Colombo Express” on the Grand Alliance’s weekly Asia/Europe Loop D service.
   Hapag-Lloyd will take delivery of a further seven ships with a capacities of 8,750 TEUs up to 2008.
   During the naming ceremony the German carrier dismissed overcapacity fears. It said that Global Insight’s projection of world trade growth of more than 7 percent in the next two years and then by about 6 percent “is probably a very conservative assumption.”
   Hapag-Lloyd parent company TUI AG plans to combine Hapag-Lloyd’s and CP Ships’ operations by 2007, creating a fleet of about 140 ships with total capacity of more than 400,000 TEUs, pushing the merged carrier into the top five ocean carriers in terms of fleet capacity.