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OOCL Seoul one of first post-Panamax vessels to call VICT

Building ahead of demand, the recent port call of the 8,063 teu OOCL Seoul has shown that the foresight of International Container Services Inc (ICTSI)’s Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT) at the Port of Melbourne is paying off as bigger vessels are now starting to be cascaded into the Asia-Australia trades.

Vincent Wee, Hong Kong and South East Asia Correspondent

September 4, 2018

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Approximately 3,400 boxes were handled during the call, with crane productivity at around 70 moves an hour.

The vessel’s call signals Melbourne’s growing ability to match the performance of other major ports at Sydney and Brisbane to accept the larger capacity vessels now being introduced into key Australian container trades, ICTSI said in a press release. Container terminals at the other two key ports further north on the population-heavy Australian east coast are operated by rival port operators DP World and Hutchison Ports, among others.

The OOCL Seoul is one of Orient Overseas Container Line’s (OOCL) 16 SX Class vessels. When it was launched in 2010 it initially entered the premier Asia-Europe trade. As part of OOCL’s new parent company COSCO Shipping Holdings, it has now been pumped into the upgraded Central China-Australia East Coast service, jointly operated by COSCO and ANL with capacity boosted by the introduction of 8,063 teu to 8,500 teu vessels.

Read More: ICTSI lines up $300m in financing for Australian terminal VICT

VICT has been designed as a highly automated, high efficiency  terminal with five post-panamax quay cranes to meet the new higher capacity requirements in Melbourne, with an initial annual capacity of 1m teu and the ability to handle two post-panamax 8,000 teu to 12,500 teu vessels at the same time.

This stands it in good stead for the future as vessels of a similar size and specification to the OOCL Seoul are expected to become increasingly common at VICT, ICTSI added.

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About the Author

Vincent Wee

Hong Kong and South East Asia Correspondent

Vincent Wee is Seatrade's Hong Kong correspondent covering Hong Kong and South China while also making use of his Malay language skills to cover the Malaysia and Indonesia markets. He has gained a keen insight and extensive knowledge of the offshore oil and gas markets gleaned while covering major rig builders and offshore supply vessel providers.

Vincent has been a journalist for over 15 years, spending the bulk of his career with Singapore's biggest business daily the Business Times, and covering shipping and logistics since 2007. Prior to that he spent several years working for Brunei's main English language daily as well as various other trade publications.

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