Hapag-Lloyd has added the ‘Al Jmeliyah’, a 15,000 TEU containership and the last in a series of 17 newbuilds, to bring the total number of ships in its fleet to 219.
The Al Jmeliyah was contracted to Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI) by United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) in the summer of 2013.
It will now leave HSHI in South Korea and join its eleven 15,000-TEU sister vessels and six 19,900-TEU ships from the same order.
Following the merger of UASC with Hapag-Lloyd at the end of May this year, these units are now all part of the Hapag-Lloyd fleet.
The new LNG-ready certified ships are setting the highest standards in environmental protection and have particularly low consumption and emission values due to features such as a waste heat recovery system and a connection for shore-based power.
This makes Hapag-Lloyd the fifth-largest liner shipping company in the world.
Lars Jensen, CEO, SeaIntelligence, recently forecasted the industry’s developments as far into the future as 2025 in his 'Liner Shipping in 2025' technical paper
Al Jmeliyah, which means “the beautiful one” in Arabic, will begin operating this weekend on the FE4 service of THE Alliance between Asia and Northern Europe, just like its predecessor, the “Afif”, which was delivered in July.
The 368-metre-long, 51-metre-wide vessel has a maximum load rating of 153,148 tonnes.
Anthony Firmin, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Hapag-Lloyd, said: “With this newbuild, our fleet – one of the youngest and most modern in the industry with an average age of just 7.1 years – is now complete.
“We have no plans to order any more newbuilds in the foreseeable future.”
