Samsung Heavy builds world's largest container ship

SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Heavy Industries Co., a major shipbuilder in South Korea, said Monday it has successfully built the world's largest container vessel.

Samsung Heavy said one of the six 23,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU)-class container ships ordered by Swiss shipper Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) S.A. in September 2017, left its shipyard in Geoje, 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Saturday.

Named "MSC Gulsun," the vessel is 400 meters long, 61.5 meters wide and 33.2 meters high, according to the shipbuilder. It can carry 23,756 TEU containers.

Samsung Heavy was the first shipbuilder to produce a container ship with a capacity of over 20,000 TEU after it won an order from Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. to build four 20,100-TEU vessels in 2015.

kdon@yna.co.kr
(END)