The Cosco Development became the largest ship to transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean to-date
The Panama Canal experienced a major milestone yesterday with the transit of its largest containership to date, the Neopanamax Cosco Development.
Contrary to the so-called “Panamax” vessels, which length is up to 294 meters and 33.53 meters width -according to the security standards of the Panama Canal-, the Neopanamax vessels can reach up to 366 meters length and 49 meters width. This upgrade increases the transport capacity from 5,000 TEU’s to 13,000 TEU’s.
The Cosco Development particularly has a capacity of 13,092 TEU’s and has 366 meters in length and 48.2 meters in width. This is the equivalent to the length of the Eiffel Tower or eight Statues of Liberty.
The vessel is a member the new SAX services from Asia to the U.S East Coast, offered by the Ocean Alliance.
So far, more than 1,200 Neopanamax vessels have transited the Panama Canal, with an average of 5.9 vessels per day. “This is yet another example of the Expansion surpassing our original expectations, which was made possible in part by our continued investment in the in-depth training of our Canal workforce,” said the Canal Administrator Jorge Quijano.
“As liners continue to reroute services and consolidate cargo on larger vessels, we look forward to welcoming the increase of Neopanamax traffic with the same safe, reliable service our customers have come to expect,” said Quijano.
Thus far, 15 Neopanamax liner services have redirected service to the Panama Canal to take advantage of the Expansion.
Sources:
https://www.pancanal.com/eng/pr/press-releases/2017/05/02/pr623.html