Largest Container Ship

As the world is becoming more connected and the demand for goods from various places grows exponentially, the shipping industry is not behind the scene.

Container ships can be considered the most fast-growing category of vessels present nowadays. Due to the increase in demand, the ships’ owner tries to minimize the cost for his entire fleet by building largest container ship.

About the 90% of non-bulk cargo is transported by container ship, and if in previous years the tanker ship was having the record of largest and biggest nowadays that record has been broken by this giant container ship.

In this article, we will take a look at the 13 biggest container ships present.

Top 13 Biggest container ship

The top 13 biggest container ship listed by the capacity of TEU (Twenty-foot equivalent unit) are the following:

1. HMM Algeciras
2. HMM COPENHAGEN
3. HMM OSLO
4. MSC GULSUN
5. OOC HONG KONG
6. COSCO SHIPPING UNIVERSE
7. ANTONIE DE SAINT EXUPERY
8. MADRID MAERSK
9. EVER GOLDEN 
10. MOL TRUTH 
11. EVER GLORY
12. COSCO SHIPPING TAURUS
13. MV BARZAN

#13MV BARZAN

Our list of the top biggest container ship starts with the container vessel MV BARZAN.

This ship is owned by the company United Arab Shipping Company. The Barzan Container ship was built in South Korea in 2015.

 The route in which the Mv Barzan usually is in service is the Asia-Europe, touching ports as Qingdao, Shangai, etc.

The Length of MB Barzan is 400m with a Beam of 58.6m; the capacity in TEU that the MV BARZAN can carry is 19,870 TEU.

#12 COSCO shipping Taurus

The COSCO shipping Taurus is part of the Constellation class, a series of 11 container ships built for COSCO Shipping Lines.

Some of the characteristics that make the COSCO SHIPPING TAURUS one of the biggest container ships on the planet are its capacity of TEU that she can carry.

The Total TEU capacity that the COSCO shipping Taurus can carry is 20,119 TEU

#11 Ever-Glory 

The ever Glory is a big container ship that is part of the 11 ships of the Evergreen G class. One of the advantages of this class of container ships is that the emissions are drastically reduced using the scrubber.

The Length of the Ever-Glory container ship is 400m, while the Beam is 58.8m. Therefore, in terms of capacity, the total number of TEU that the Ever-Glory can carry is 20,160 TEU.

#10 MOL TRUTH

Another important and giant ship that is part of the world’s biggest container ship is the MOL Truth.

The Mol Truth is part of the Triumph class owned by the Mol Company.

The Triumph class includes others 6 container ships that share more or less the same characteristics.

The total Length overall of the MOL TRUTH is 399m with a beam of 58m, the maximum capacity in terms of TEU is 20,182 TEU.

#9 Ever Golden

Another ship that the Evergreen Corporation always operates is the Ever Golden. The main difference between the Ever-Glory is between the numbers of TEU that the ever golden may carry on.

The EVER GLODEN has a capacity of 20,388 TEU, while the Ever-Glory has a capacity of 20,160 TEU. Just a tiny difference, but both can be described as giant container ships.

Length overall of the EVER GOLDEN is 400m, Beam of 58.8m, a GT of 217,612t.

#8 MADRID MAERSK

When we speak about container ships, it is almost impossible not to name the maritime shipping industry leader, the Maersk line.

For position 8 of your rank, we have the Madrid Maersk.

When she was launched, she was the biggest container ship present on the planet; also if after a short period, she was surpassed by another container ship that we will see shortly.

The Madrid Maersk has an incredible capacity of 20,568 TEU.

Some other main characteristics of the MADRID MAERK its Length overall of 399m, a beam of 58.6m.

#7 ANTONIE DE SAINT EXUPERY

This vessel is operating under the CMA CGM company, the leader of container ships in Europe. In recent years this company has broken various records regarding the ship’s dimension, trying more times to own multiple records.

The Antonie De Saint Exupery has a capacity of 20,954 TEU

#6 COSCO SHIPPING UNIVERSE

Cosco is a shipping and logistic company that offers various services, especially in logistics and container shipping.

The Cosco shipping universe is part of the 6 container ships that break the 21,000 TEU capacity.

The capacity of COSCO SHIPPING UNIVERSE IS 21,237 TEU.

#5 OOCL HONG KONG

Back in the 2017, that container ship was the biggest on the planet, but as we know, it was overtaken by other container ships with the progress and optimization of spaces.

 She was built at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in the May of 2017. The service routes for that ship are East Asia to Northern Europe.

The capacity of the OOCL HONG KONG is 21,237 TEU

#4 MSC GULSUN

Another big giant of the shipping industry is the MSC; in recent years is becoming always more popular in the container shipping industry, where APONTE ( owner of MSC) already owns more than 500 container ships and in the cruise shipping industry.

The MSC GULSUN is part of the 29 class ship ordered by MSC.

The MSC GULSUN is the container ship with the biggest gross tonnage; in facts, the GT is 232,618t.

The capacity of TEU of the MSC GULSUN is 23,756.

#3- HMM OSLO

The first 3 positions of our rank for the biggest container ship present in the planet are occupied by The HMM.

The thirds biggest class of container ships is the HMM OSLO, together with others 5 sisters’ ships.

Built-in 2020, the HMM OSLO is 399.9m in Length, 61.5m beam just slightly more than the first 2 positions that you will see soon. 

The capacity in TEU that the HMM OSLO can carry together with other sister’s ship is 23,820 TEU

#2-HMM Copenhagen 

The second biggest container ship, ranked by capacity in TEU that they can carry on, is always part of the HMM shipping company.

The HMM Copenhagen is a 399.9 m length with a Beam of 61m a GT of 228,283, and its maximum capacity is the same as the First in rank 23,964 TEU.

The HMM Copenhagen is part of 6 others container ships that are built with the same capacity.

The others vessel that share the same characteristics of the HMM Copenhagen and HMM Algeciras are:

• HMM Dublin
• HMM Gdansk
• HMM Hamburg
• HMM Helsinki
• HMM Le Havre

#1 HMM ALGECIRAS

The largest container ship is the HMM ALGECIRAS, a South Korean-based company that owns the most giant container ship on the planet. 

In terms of capacity, the HMM Algeciras can carry a maximum of 23,964 TEU.

Largest container ships by Length

If in the first part of the article we take a look at the largest container ship by its capacity, in the next part of the article, we will see a table with the help of a table which is the most giant container ship by Length.

What is the size category of a Container ship?

After a depth look at the biggest container ship, someone of you could be interested to know more about the different classification of container ship 

The container ship is classified by 7 main category:

1. small feeder,
2. feeder, 
3. feedermax, 
4. Panamax, 
5. Post-Panamax,
6. New Panamax 
7. ultra-large

Feeder size category of container ships

The small feeder is container ships that can have a maximum capacity of 1,000 TEU, usually, that container ships are used in small ports, and are fitted with cranes that having the ability to discharge the different types of container in port where are not fitted.

 The feeder ships are medium-sized container vessels with a TEU capacity that ranges between 1,000 to 2,000 TEU.

They are generally used for a short voyage, particularly for the small feeder in port where there isn’t a possibility for bigger ships to enter or ports where there isn’t the crane for loading and unloading the containers.

Feedermax is the last class of the feedermax category, as for the previous 2 types of container ships, the main goal for a Feedermax is to serve in port not equipped with cranes. The main distinction among the 3 is regarding the capacity. In facts, the maximum numbers of TEU that Feedermax container ships may load is 2,000 to 3,000 TEU

What is the Panamax class for container vessels?

The size of Panamax, as the word says is referred to the limit of the Panama Canal’s lock chambers; the maximum Beam that the Panama Canal can accommodate is 32.31m.

The range of containers that a container ship of the PANAMAX class can load is ranging between 3,000 to 5,000 TEU.

Post-Panamax container ship size

In this category are making part the container ships that have a larger dimension of the Panamax class. In particular are container ships that, with the old size of the Panama Canal could not pass through.

 The capacity of the post-Panamax container ship is ranging between 5,000 to 10,000 TEU.

New Panamax container ship size

The expansion and the creation of another set of larger locks in the canal of Panama led to the creation of this new class for the container ships.

This classification is based on the new locks’ dimensions 427m in length, 55m in Beam. The new expansion of the Panama Canal was built to stay in the same line of the new container ships dimension that, as we saw during the first part of the article, is getting bigger and bigger.

Thanks to the new building of the lock, ships of 366m in Length and with a beam of 49m can easily navigate.

In terms of capacity, with word new Panama or Neopanamax is referring to a container vessel that can carry between 10,000 to 14,500 TEU maximum.

ULCV ( ULTRA LARGE CONTAINER VESSEL)

The last part of the container classification is referring to the biggest class of container ships. The ULCV.

The container ships that can carry an equal or higher number of 14,501 TEU are part of this category, with a dimension of 366 m in Length and a beam of 49m or wider.

Conclusion

We look at the largest container ship present on our planet during this article and how the different sizes of container ships are classified. Anyway, as the demand for goods increases, the owner will try to benefit from building always larger container ships.