World’s Largest Boxship Arrives at Port of Tanjung Pelepas

MSC Gulsun, the world’s largest containership, called at Malaysia’s Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) on July 27 during its maiden voyage.

PTP, a joint venture between MMC Group and APM Terminals, became the first port in Southeast Asia to welcome the Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) latest vessel which was delivered in early July this year.

With a 23,756 TEU capacity and a length of 400 meters, the 61.5-meter-wide ship is on the Asia – Europe service loop of the 2M alliance network.

MSC Gulsun was previously berthed at Yantian, China and will arrive at Port of Algeciras, Spain, on its next port call.

The giant left PTP with a record load of 19,574 TEUs, surpassing the previous record of 19,284 TEUs set by PTP earlier this year.

The ship is the first from a batch of six 23,000 TEU-class units ordered by MSC in September 2017. The company has another five such vessels on order at Samsung Heavy Industries, while an additional five would be built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).

While MSC set the stage for the arrival of the new class of boxship giants, the company was overtaken by Hyundai Merchant Marine, who has 12 such vessels on order with a total capacity of 276,000 TEU, according to data provided by vesselsValue.