SIMIC

Rival Taiwanese carroer, Evergreen Marine, has ships of 24,004 TEU. The stacking design the shipyard reports for the MSC vessel permits boxes to be piled 25 layers high.

The vessel, which is being built for MSC, increases capacity versus a similar vessel built for Evergreen and delivered weeks ago as the world's largest containership.

The newest vessel, the MSC Tessa, has the same overall dimensions as the Ever Alot and Ever Apex recently delivered by Hudong Zhonghua, a division of CSSC.

While the main dimensions are unchanged, the company's containership design team has optimised the ship's superstructure, radar mast, and other related designs according to the characteristics of the ship owner's operating route.

The shipyard developed the design with its internal design team and is calling the vessels the "Hudong-type" class. They measure 1,312 feet in length with a beam of 202 feet. The shipyard points out that they are 196 feet longer than the largest aircraft carrier and have a deck area equivalent to four football fields.

The design incorporates several features which are reported to improve their energy efficiency. They have a small bulbous bow, large diameter propellers, and energy-saving ducts.

The MSC Tessa is also the first newly built ship for the line and the shipyard to employ an air lubrication system for the hull which they estimate will reduce fuel consumption by three to four per cent.

The design also used a shaft generator system to reduce fuel consumption and optimise the vessel's EEDI energy efficiency rating. They also are outfitted with a hybrid scrubber unit.

The shipyard expects to deliver the MSC Tessa this year. It is the first of four vessels being built by the yard. Block assembly for the second and third vessels was started simultaneously in two drydocks at Hudong Zhonghua on June 13 shortly after work resumed from the Covid lockdowns in the Shanghai area.

The shipyard reports it is using a batch construction method to speed the work on the two ships and improve efficiency in the construction process. Work on the fourth vessel for MSC began after the first vessel was floated out.