Press Release

MSC Isabella Sets a New Record for Modern Terminals by Becoming the Biggest Container Vessel to Call at Hong Kong

15 November 2019

When MSC Isabella, a ship belonging to a brand new class of container ships with a capacity of 23,656 TEU, berthed at Modern Terminals’ facilities at Terminal 9 (South) today (15 November, Friday) at 7:30am, the record of Hong Kong has been updated which once again highlights the operating capability of the port as an international maritime hub.

Peter Levesque, Group Managing Director of Modern Terminals Limited said: “We are proud to have MSC Isabella, a magnificent container vessel, at our facilities. Setting a new milestone for the Port of Hong Kong, she is the first container vessel with a capacity of over 23,000 TEU calling the city.

“Modern Terminals is a member of the Hong Kong Seaport Alliance (HKSPA) and the combined facilities of HKSPA can handle eight mega vessels simultaneously which provides the kind of flexibility the large shipping lines want.”

Regional Managing Director for MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company’s Asia Regional Office Y. J. Tan said: “We are pleased to have our biggest, most technologically advanced and energy efficient class of vessels calling at the Port of Hong Kong. MSC Isabella and her new sister ships show MSC’s continued investment and commitment towards facilitating global trade.”

MSC Isabella is the sister ship of MSC Gülsün, the world’s largest container ship, and forms part of a new class of 23,000+ TEU vessels to be added in 2019-2020 to the global shipping network of MSC. These 11 ships have been designed with a wide range of environmental, efficiency, stability and safety matters in mind. For example, the shape of the bow has been designed to enhance energy efficiency by reducing hull resistance. State-of-the-art engineering minimises wind resistance, resulting in lower fuel consumption. To comply with an upcoming marine fuel regulation in 2020, the ship is also equipped with a United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO)-approved hybrid Exhaust Gas Cleaning System and has the option of switching to low-Sulphur fuel, or to be adapted for liquefied natural gas in the future.

The vessel is deployed on the Asia-North Europe service Swan of the 2M Alliance with a port rotation of Qingdao – Busan – Ningbo – Yantian – Tanjung Pelepas – Rotterdam – Felixstowe – Antwerp – Rotterdam – Tanger Med – Algeciras – Singapore - Hong Kong – Shanghai – Qingdao.


Facts about the vessel:

Length overall – 399.7 metres
Breadth – 61.0 metres
Depth – 33.2 metres
Draught – >14.5 metres
Main Engine – MAN B&W 11G95ME-C9.5 x 1 set (66,200kW x 80.0 rpm)
Container carrying capacity – 23,656 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit)
Refrigerated container capacity – 2,026 FEU
Flag administration – Panama


Please click the below link for the video of MSC Isabella arriving at Hong Kong and berthing at Modern Terminals.

https://www.modernterminals.com.hk/sites/group/media/normal/728_MTL_welcomes_MSC_Isabella.mp4 

For photos in high resolution, please click below pictures.