Panama Canal records new capacity record with container ship

Less than a month after setting the previous record, the Panama Canal today received the transit of the container carrier OOCL France, becoming the most capable ship to transit the new locks since its opening in June last year. On Wednesday, OOCL France made a transit north (towards the Atlantic) with a maximum capacity for its passage through the Panama Canal of 13,926 TEU's (20-foot containers). The boat is 366.47 meters long and 48.23 meters wide."This trend towards ships of more than 13,000 containers demonstrates the acceptance and confidence of the shipping industry with the service we are providing with the extended Canal", said the administrator of the Panama Canal, Jorge Luis Quijano.

The previous record was set by COSCO Development on May 2, with 366.45 meters in length and 48.26 meters in manga, with 13.345 TEU's capacity to travel the Panama Canal. Like the Cosco Development, the OOCL France is located in the new South Atlantic service (known as SAX) of the new OCEAN Alliance. The weekly SAX service is located on the Asia-East Coast route and includes in its rotation the ports of Hong Kong, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Norfolk, Savannah and Charleston. In its rotation it uses 11 ships with ranges of sizes of 11,000 to 13,000 TEUs of capacity. OOCL France is the second ship of this service to travel through the extended Canal after the COSCO Development.

Recognition for environmental efficiency
As its first interoceanic transit, the Panama Canal gave OOCL France the Green Connection Award that recognizes ships that meet environmental efficiency standards. By using the Panama Canal route this ship is reducing from 5,000 to 26,000 tons of CO2 compared to conventional routes that existed before the extended Canal.

Performance of the expanded Canal
To date, a total of 1,360 Neopanamax vessels have used the expanded Canal since its opening last June. Of these, 43.8% are container carriers, 29% are liquefied oil gas and 8.1% are liquefied natural gas.