Impressive drone images of new record ship in Antwerp: largest container giant in the world has arrived (Antwerp)

The MSC Loreto, currently the largest container ship in the world, arrived in the port of Antwerp on Thursday evening. This means that the record of the largest call-up ever in our country has been slightly sharpened. On Saturday, 750 lucky people will be able to admire the giant up close during a cruise in the Deurganckdok. Those who can’t wait can already view the above – impressive – drone images.

Jonas van Boxel

Today at 00:40

On April 21, the port of Antwerp-Bruges received the largest container ship ever to dock in our country with the MSC Tessa. That record was broken again five days later with the arrival of the OOCL Spain in Zeebrugge. And now there is the MSC Loreto: together with its identical sister ship MSC Irina, it is the largest container ship in the world. The Loreto departed from the port of Rotterdam in the morning, to moor late that evening at the MPET container terminal at Antwerp’s Deurganckdok.

To clarify: in terms of dimensions, the MSC Tessa, OOCL Spain and MSC Loreto are almost exactly the same size at just under 400 meters in length and just over 60 meters in width. It’s about how many containers fit on each ship. For example, the MSC Tessa can load 24,116 standard containers or TEU, while the MSC Loreto has room for 24,346 TEU. Stacks of no less than 25 layers of containers fit on the ship.

It is no coincidence that our port has recently received one brand-new container giant after another. Port economist Theo Notteboom explained in the Monday newspaper that shipping companies ordered new ships en masse during the corona crisis. They will all come into service in 2023 and 2024. “This year alone, 32 megaships – each with a carrying capacity of 16,000 TEU or more – will be added. That is gigantic.”

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In the coming days, a total of 6,083 TEU containers will be unloaded at MPET. 8,416 TEU will be on board. The ship, which has a crew of 25 people, will continue its journey to the British port of Felixstowe in the course of Sunday. On Saturday, Port of Antwerp-Bruges organizes boat tours to admire the MSC Loreto up close. But those who haven’t registered yet are out of luck: the 750 places were full after less than half a day.