New record ship for Cosco calls at port of Antwerp
The Cosco Belgium, the latest container carrier in the fleet of the Chinese shipping company Cosco, moored in the port of Antwerp on Sunday. The Cosco Belgium scored an important first: with a capacity of 13,350 TEU the Cosco Belgium is a new record for the state-owned Chinese company, the Antwerp Port Authority news release said.
The Cosco Belgium is the 55th ultra-large container ship (more than 10,000 TEU) to call at the port of Antwerp.
“This demonstrates incontrovertibly that the port of Antwerp is fully accessible to the very largest container ships in the world, thanks among other things to the deepening of the Scheldt,” declared Eddy Bruyninckx, CEO of Antwerp Port Authority.
Cosco Belgium was built in China by Nantong Cosco KHI Ship Engineering, a joint venture with the Japanese group Kawasaki Heavy Industries. This shipyard had already built units of 10,020 TEU for Cosco. The Cosco Belgium is its first ULCS. The Cosco Belgium began its maiden trip in Ningbo on 10 March. It will appear regularly in Antwerp, at Antwerp Gateway in the Deurganckdok, as part of Cosco’s NE3 service from the Far East to Europe. The master of the Cosco Belgium is captain Yan Zhengping.
