HMM Saint Petersburg is 100 meters taller than the height of the Eiffel Tower (AFP)
Geoje, South Korea:
On the deck of one of the world‘s largest container ships, a worker in a gray protective suit sets up the compass that will guide the leviathan around the world.
Finishes are being brought to HMM St Petersburg at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard on Geoje Island, at the southern tip of South Korea.
Deep in the bowels of the enormous ship, the welders are eclipsed by the giant engines that will propel it to a top speed of over 22 knots.
At 400 meters (1,300 feet), the HMM St Petersburg is 100 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower is tall and 62 meters wide.
It has a capacity of 23,820 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units, the standard measure of a shipping container), which owner Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) describes as enough to carry seven billion chocolate pies, a Korean snack. popular – one for every human being on the planet.
It is the 12th and final of a new 24,000 TEU class of ships that HMM is putting into service, the largest of its kind in the world and costing 170 to 180 billion won (143 to 151 million won). dollars) each.
The first of the class to begin operations, the 23,964 TEU HMM Algeciras, made its maiden voyage in April when it set a new world record for shipping volume.
The southern shipbuilding industry is one of the largest in the world and has been one of the engines of its decades of economic growth, but in recent years it has been hammered by global oversupply and competition. cheapest from China.
Likewise, Korea’s shipping industry has been plunged into turmoil by the collapse of Hanjin Shipping, once one of the world‘s 10 largest container lines, which was declared bankrupt in 2017.
HMM St Petersburg will be delivered in September and will make its maiden voyage to Shanghai and other Chinese ports, before crossing the Suez Canal to Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp and London.
The trip from South Korea to Europe and back is a 12-week round trip, but despite its size and the distance traveled, the ship will only have a crew of 23.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
