ULCS, short for Ultra Large Container Ship, is the generic name for container ships with a nominal container capacity of 10,000 TEU and over. For many, the ULCS is a fascinating ship, and the editors of DynaLiners Weekly, published by Dynamar of Alkmaar/The Netherlands, are no exception.
DynaLiners is keeping track of all ULCS operating and on order. Not only that, we also check the distribution of the ships over the individual operators, both by number, size and type. This, amongst others, reveals a carrier’s flexibility of trading through the new Panama Canal with ULCS. If not, it would basically be condemned to serving the Europe-Far East trade only with such large tonnage.
As of 1 January 2018, 451 ULCS were operating, while another 129 were on order for delivery into 2020. MSC deploys the largest number (ninety) and at the same time has the largest ULCS on order (11x 23,350 TEU).
Maersk Line, the inventor, initiator and developer of the ULCS with its 15,500 TEU “Emma Maersk” (initially rated at 11,000 TEU when launched in August 2006), comes second with eighty-six existing vessels, of which thirteen inherited from its recent Hamburg Süd acquisition. The Danes have eleven units on order, including six of 20,600 TEU each.
Cosco Shipping Line currently uses sixty-seven ULCS, which will be joined by another twenty-nine units over the next two years. A total of twenty-two existing units and twenty-seven being built come from 2016 incorporated China Shipping.
Finally, of the biggest ULCS operators, CMA CGM presently deploys seventy-four such ships, including twenty originating from APL. Its orderbook comprises nine 22,850 TEU leviathans, which are bound to become the first ever LNG-powered ULCS.
Thanks to its takeover of UASC (twenty-two ULCS), Hapag-Lloyd is leading the next tier with forty-five ships (nothing on order), followed by ONE (the 1 April next coming together of “K” Line, MOL and NYK).
Staunch loner Evergreen has thirty-one ULCS operating and in the pipeline (it is contemplating on twenty more), and its equally standalone compatriot Yang Ming twenty-one. Six units are being built for the account of non-operating owners.
Come February 2018, another ten or so ULCS will have been delivered and added to the existing fleet, with the total number remaining unchanged.
ULCS can be distinguished in five different types, of which the “names” speak for themselves. The large newPostPanamax types, the 18+ ones in particular may speak to everybody’s imagination, the two newPanamax ULCS kinds basically are the more much flexible vessels, able to trade worldwide:
– SNP – SubNewPanamax – 17 to 18 boxes wide across deck
– NP – NewPanamax – 19-boxes wide across deck – able to cross the Panama Canal
– NPP – NewPostPanamax – 20 to 21-boxes wide – cannot pass through the Panama Canal
– 18,000 TEU+ – 23-boxes wide across deck
– 22,000 TEU+ – 24-boxes wide across deck
– NP – NewPanamax – 19-boxes wide across deck – able to cross the Panama Canal
– NPP – NewPostPanamax – 20 to 21-boxes wide – cannot pass through the Panama Canal
– 18,000 TEU+ – 23-boxes wide across deck
– 22,000 TEU+ – 24-boxes wide across deck
The distribution per carrier of the various types appears from the below table:
A last note: all ULCS larger than 18,000 TEU (also referred to as MegaMax ships) invariably operate in the high density North Europe-Far East trade. The average capacity of all ships of all sizes currently operating here is 15,000 TEU.
Source: Dynamar, Publishers of DynaLiners
Source: Dynamar, Publishers of DynaLiners
