SIMIC

The aggressive expansion programme, supported by the South Korean government, saw the dozen ships which are billed as the world's largest super-class ships enter service between May and September 2020.

The last ship of the class, the HMM St Petersburg was built along with four others at Samsung Heavy Industries. The other seven vessels were built at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co.

Delivery began with the HMM Algeciras in late April 2020, followed by HMM Oslo, HMM Copenhagen, HMM Dublin, HMM Gdansk, HMM Rotterdam, HMM Hamburg, HMM Southampton, HMM Helsinki, and finally HMM Stockholm. All twelve ships are sailing between Asia and Northern Europe permitting HMM to maintain weekly sailings along the route.

With dimensions of 1,312 feet in length and a 200-foot beam, each ship qualifies as the largest of the box ships currently in service and part of a trend that has seen dramatic growth in the size of container ships in recent years. HMM has expanded its total capacity from 400,000 to over 700,000 TEU.

The shipping company said that the class of ships is highly efficient and eco-friendly creating significant advantages in the market. HMM said that despite their size the ships reduced fuel costs by 13 per cent per TEU compared to its previous class of 15,000 TEU ships.

Further, HMM said that despite the sharp decrease in global volumes due to the impact of the coronavirus, the ships have been sailing full. In May, the HMM Algeciras set a world record in terms of shipments with 19,621 TEU, and since then the sister ships have averaged approximately 19,500 TEU on their sailings.

In addition to this class of ships, HMM also has eight 16,000 TEU-class container ships being built by Hyundai Heavy Industries. Those vessels are due to be delivered in the first half of 2021. This second class of ships will permit HMM to expand capacity to approximately 850,000 TEU and are part of the line's strategy to reach a one million TEU capacity by 2022, reports The Maritime Executive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.