Container ships are one of the major drivers of the global economy, making it easy and cheap to transport containerised goods from lower cost economies in the far east to higher cost economies in Europe and America.
Container shipping lines, like MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company), have responded to demand by building ever-larger container ships - but for the past 16 or 17 years, they have stopped building bigger sized vessels, due to port handling constraints, and have concentrated on getting more containers into a similar-size ship, 400 metres (1,312 feet) long by around 62 metres (203 feet) wide.
The original 400 metre long ships (see my Evelyn Maersk video) were originally designed to carry around 11,000 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) of containers, but were upwardly modified to carry 15,500 TEU, and since then ship designers and builders have changed and improved the hull design to the degree that MSC Loreto can carry 24,346 TEU of containers.
One previous ship, MSC Irina, has already entered service, and 4 more ships of the same design are due to be delivered soon.
It is likely that MSC Loreto's size and capacity will soon be overtaken!!
MSC Loreto is due to depart from Felixstowe in the evening on Thursday, 1st June.
This video was filmed by me, Chris Gosling, using a Panasonic HC-770 HD camcorder.