SIMIC

The vessel has a capacity of 24,000 TEU and measures 400 metres long and 62 metres wide.

"With a deck area of nearly four soccer fields, Ever Ace is 63 metres longer than the world's largest aircraft carrier in service. It has a carrying capacity of 23,992 TEU which, if being connected end to end, can stretch all the way from Shenzhen to Guangzhou.

"Ever Ace" is the first of the ten 24,000-TEU class mega ships of Evergreen Marine. Her sister vessels "Ever Act", "Ever Aim", and "Ever Alp" will be put into operations this year and will also berth at Yantian," Hutchison Ports stated.

The ship is the largest container vessel ever to call at Yantian port, and its 8,200 TEU container exchange also set a new record for a maiden call exchange at the port. After loading in Yantian, the vessel sailed with 21,718 TEU, which Hutchinson Ports said is a new record.

Ever Ace ACE stared its journey from Qingdao Port on July 30, and headed south with a port rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Taipei and Yantian. After departing Yantian, the vessel will sail directly to Europe and is expected to arrive at Rotterdam in 23 days.

"Yantian has been an important partner of Evergreen Line for a long time, and it is also a terminal-of-choice for ultra-large container vessels in the world. We choose Yantian as the only port of call of Ever Ace in South China, signifying a vote of confidence in a number of key factors such as its capabilities and capacities in serving mega vessels and the abundant cargo sources coming from the cargo catchment areas. We believe we will have closer cooperation with Yantian in the future!" Evergreen Shenzhen said in a statement.

"We are very pleased with EVER ACE, the largest container vessel in the world, berthing at our facility in Yantian," added Lawrence Shum, Managing Director of Hutchison Ports Yantian.

"The combined facilities of Yantian can handle up to five mega-vessels each with deadweight over 200,000 tonnes simultaneously which provides the big container shipping alliances with the capacity and flexibility to include Yantian in their network. As a key container operator of Shenzhen and South China, Yantian serves over a third of the import and export container traffic of Guangdong province," he concluded.