MSC Megamax container ship establishing historical precedents in West Africa
The MV MSC DILETTA, a UCLS Megamax vessel of 23,782 TEU capacity, became the largest box ship ever to call at a West African port, after being received by the port of Tema in Ghana last Sunday.
She then proceeded to the Lome Container Terminal on Wednesday, setting another record for that terminal, as well. The vessel, operated by MSCCargo on its Asia-West Africa ‘Africa Express’ service, has got a deadweight of 228,400 tons, a draft of 16.50 m, a length of nearly 400.00 m and a beam of 61.00 m.
The MSC DILETTA is expected to continue her voyage to Abidjan and Kribi, breaking the size record in each of these ports, before heading back to Asia. Meanwhile, the port of Tema will be receiving another Megamax – the MSC TURKIYE (24,436 TEU) – in a few hours time.
So far, the biggest container vessels visiting West Africa have been typically units of just under 17,000 teu.
The arrival of MSC DILETTA in Ghana illustrates the extraordinary expansion of West African container ports in the past decade, where not that long ago vessels of 4,000-5,000 teu were regarded as the absolute maximum allowable in this region.
The call of the MSC DILETTA will be followed by many others of the same type in the coming weeks, MSC having decided to deploy Megamaxes on the Asia-West Africa route, at the expenses of Asia-Europe for which they had been initially designed.
Alphaliner allows you to track any Container Ship worldwide in real time, and monitor live traffic in any Container terminal around the globe.
Source: Alphaliner
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