Hong Kong Seaport Alliance welcomes giant OOCL boxship

The Hong Kong Seaport Alliance (HKSPA) has on Thursday welcomed mega-sized containership OOCL Hong Kong on its maiden call to Hong Kong at the HKSPA’s facilities at Terminal 8.

Formed in January this year, HKPSA completed its berth and yard planning strategies to provide enhanced services to customers. The 23 berths under the members of HKPSA are divided into three terminal zones to provide higher efficiency to shipping alliances and individual carriers.

The inclusion of Hong Kong as a port of call by the 21,413-teu OOCL Hong Kong operating under the Ocean Alliance’s Asia-North Europe service is a reaffirmation of the city’s status as an international shipping hub and key gateway to China, HKPSA pointed out.

“Hong Kong, despite being small in size, has been in the league of the world’s top ten ports for the past 30 years or so,” said Angela Lee, commissioner for maritime and port development and deputy secretary for transport and housing of Hong Kong.

“Coupled with our sound fundamentals built over the years, including our free port status, strong international connectivity, trusted common law system, and a level playing field for business, I am confident that our port would be able to further leverage on new opportunities presented by the Greater Bay Area Development, the Belt and Road Initiative and the New Land-Sea Corridor, and continue to thrive as a regional transhipment hub,” she said.

Read more: Hong Kong Seaport Alliance set in motion ahead of regulatory clearance

Andy Tung, co-ceo of OOCL, said: “Containerships like the OOCL Hong Kong are important ambassadors of world trade and as a home carrier, we are very proud to have this vessel carry the name of Hong Kong, flying the flag of Hong Kong, and continue serving the industries of Hong Kong.”

Lawrence Shum, managing director of Cosco-HIT Terminals (Hong Kong) Limited, highlighted that the combined facilities of HKPSA can handle up to eight mega vessels simultaneously which provides the big container shipping alliances with the capacity and flexibility to include Hong Kong in their network.

The HKPSA consists of four Hong Kong container terminal operators including Cosco-HIT Terminals, Hong Kong International Terminals (HIT), Asia Container Terminals (ACT), and Modern Terminals Limited (MTL).

The Ocean Alliance’s Asia-North Europe service started calling Hong Kong on 26 June with a port rotation of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Yantian, Singapore, Felixstowe, Zeebrugge, Gdansk, Wilhelmshaven, Piraeus, Port Klang and back to Hong Kong.