The MSC Gülsün, 400 m long and 61.5 m wide, has 24 rows of container slots across which creates up to 1,500 extra container capacity in comparison to the existing largest container vessels. It will make its maiden voyage on July 8 on a sailing from Xingang to northern Europe.

Additional 11 sister vessels will be delivered to MSC in the coming nine months. South Korea’s HMM will start to receive a total of 12 vessels of the 23,000 TEU class starting in the second quarter of 2020.

In 2006 the Emma Maersk broke records when it was introduced with a capacity of 14,770 TEU, and in 2017 the 20,000 TEU mark was exceeded.

With size come problems – it is expected that the MSC Gülsün will require an additional 4 days of port time per rotation compared to Emma Maersk, this might result in either longer transit times or faster steaming which usually increases fuel consumption cost.