China's Shipbuilding Industry Delivers World Largest Container Ship

He Baoxin, Zhang Wenhao

China's first global largest 24,000TEU VLCS was officially signed for delivery at Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC) on June 22. This is Hudong Zhonghua’s another major breakthrough in toplevel VLCS construction on the heels of completion and delivery of China's first 23,000TEU double fuel powered VLCS in September 2020,the company became one of the world leaders of whole series of container ship R&D, design and construction,hghlighting the Chinese shipbuilding first mover advantage in new leap forward in sci-tech breakthrough and realizing new heights of China creation as well as creating a new milestone in Chinese shipbuilding industry.

The ship is independently designed by Hudong Zhonghua with complete independent intellectual property rights; it was classed with ABS and will serve the Far East-Europe route after being put into operation. The ship has an overall length of 399.99 m, a molded breadth of 61.5 m, a deck area of 24,000 m2,equivalent to 3.5 standard football fields; with a cargo hold depth of 33.2 m, it can carry 240,000 tons of cargo, accommodate more than 24,000 standard containers, the maximum stack layer can reach 25,equivalent to 22 floors, it has the largest container load, dubbed as a maritime giant.

Three highlights characterizes the ship as the "king of cargo carrying", "strong energy saving" and"best livable".

Powerful capacity to carry goods. Hudong Zhonghua breaks through the traditional design and adopts subdivision layout of iterative optimization, so that the ship has the largest number of containers of its kind. By applying innovative lightweight and simple design such as large frame spacing skeleton, hybrid horizontal bulkhead and integrated lashing bridge, the ship has the strongest carrying capacity among the same class of ships, with a total weight of more than 240,000 tons, 10% more than the 23,000 TEU container ship,hence dubbed as the world's strongest"king of cargo carrying".

Outstanding energy saving and low-carbon emissions. Hudong Zhonghua adopts the world's latest hydrodynamic optimization technology, so that the ship can achieve high speed and low fuel consumption with over shipment and heavy load. Hudong Zhonghua adopts the unique exquisite bulbous bow design, and the combined application of large diameter propeller and energy-saving pipe coupling optimization technology, making its speedability stand out.

During the sea trial test, the ship easily exceeded the contract speed indicator of 22.5 knots. Compared with a conventional fuel-powered 23,000 TEU container ship, for all more containers, the ship can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 38 tons per day, or 13.5%per 14 tons of heavy container load.All the performance indicators have reached the international advanced level.

Comfortable living environment.In line with the people-oriented design concept, the ship highlights humanistic care, especially adopts the fully enclosed bridge design,minimizes indoor noise, realizes the all-weather air conditioning environment control operation; the ship also adopts fashionable and personalized interior design to meet the four-star hotel experience standard, greatly enhancing the comfort of work and life, letting the crew have home warmth and home care on the sea.

As a global leading shipbuilding enterprise in container ship construction,Hudong Zhonghua not only has a long history in the field of container ship construction, but also forms a unique brand effect through continuous technological innovation and continuous pursuit of excellence, which has won wide recognition from the market and the favor of many ship owners.According to statistics, Hudong Zhonghua has delivered nearly 70 container ships of 8000TEU class and above.

Hudong Zhonghua has undertaken orders of nine 24,000 TEU VLCS, ranking first among China's large shipyards. Currently,six are currently under construction,and three are slated for delivery within this year. The delivery of the first ship means construction and delivery of the world's largest container ship has entered the"Hudong Zhonghua time", and the brand ship type of the world's largest container ship in China's shipbuilding industry is about to bear more fruits.