MSC IRENE docked in the port of Hamburg

MSC IRENE docked in the port of Hamburg for the first time on 17 August 2010 as part of the “LION Service” scheduled liner service expansion by the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) aimed at increasing capacities on shipping routes be-tween Northern Europe and the Far East/China. The vessels used to date on routes between the Far East and Hamburg all have slot capacities of 9,200 to 9,600 TEU, which already makes them large vessels. As a result of this expansion, MSC now has a total of 11 vessels in operation, two of which are 14,000 TEU container ships, three of which are 11,300 TEU vessels, and five of which each have a capacity of 9,200 TEU.

The container ship MSC IRENE is 366 metres long and 51.2 metres wide. It has a carrying capacity of 14,000 TEU (standard 20-foot containers) and has more than 1,000 power connections for refrigerated containers (reefers). This makes the MSC IRENE the largest MSC container ship ever handled in the port of Hamburg. “An increasing number of super-sized container ships are now servicing the port of Hamburg. More than 100 vessels with slot capacities exceeding 10,000 TEU have already been processed in the port so far in 2010. That’s about 30 more than last year”, explained Jens Meier, Managing Director of the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA). “More and more shipping companies are using super-sized container ships on routes between the port of Hamburg and the Far East/China. MSC is also following this trend and intends to commission several additional vessels with slot capacities of up to 14,000 TEU in the future,” added Bengt van Beuningen, press spokesman for Port of Hamburg Marketing. In order to mark the ship’s inaugural arrival, chief harbourmaster Jörg Pollmann (HPA) presented Michele Guarracino, captain of the MSC IRENE, with the Admiralty Coat of Arms of the Port of Hamburg.

Hamburg is a key port both for MSC and its customers, which is why the company provides five scheduled liner services linking Hamburg with ports in the Far East, South America, India, South Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. Handling ships of this size means that the fairway in the Outer and Lower Elbe has to be upgraded as the MSC IRENE has a maximum draught of 15.6 metres when fully loaded. The current draught and passing limits for a combined vessel width of up to 90 metres that apply on the section of the river Elbe between Glückstadt and Wedel make it very difficult to plan resources and load these huge vessels in an efficient and eco-nomic way. By making use of the prevailing tides, there is currently a maximum draught of 15.1 metres when approaching Hamburg from the North Sea, and a maximum of 13.8 metres when leaving Hamburg and heading back out to the North Sea.

(f.l.) Olaf Grote (MSC General Manager Export Sales & Marketing), Roberto Manghina (Manager LION Service), Jörg Pollmann (chief harbourmaster HPA), Michele Guarracino (Kapitän der MSC IRENE), Nils Kahn (MSC Head of Sales & Marketing), Jens Meier (managing director HPA) download

“The arrival of the MSC IRENE is an impressive example of the need to upgrade the fairway in the Outer and Lower Elbe - a need that has been recognised as plans to upgrade the fairway are now in place. Due to the current draught and width restrictions, the MSC IRENE can only approach the port of Hamburg when partially loaded and within very tight time slots. Shipping companies are not prepared to accept such restraints in the long term, and, since the number of super-sized container ships ser-vicing the port of Hamburg has grown drastically and is set to continue increasing in the future, the upgrade to the fairway in the Outer and Lower Elbe is now more ur-gent than ever before,” Jens Meier pointed out.

The “LION Service” liner services operated by MSC have a 77-day cycle and serve the following ports in Asia: Singapore, Chiwan, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Busan, Qing-dao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Yantian, Nansha, and back to Hong Kong, Chiwan and Singapore.

In 2009, the port of Hamburg handled a total of 4.2 million containers (TEU) from Asia. Of that figure, 2.3 million TEU came from the People’s Republic of China (in-cluding Hong Kong), making China Hamburg’s most important trade partner in terms of container traffic in 2009, followed by Singapore. Other top trade partners from Asia include South Korea, Malaysia and Japan.

MSC is the world’s second-largest container shipping line and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. MSC is represented in Hamburg by MSC Germany GmbH.