The largest container ship in the history of Gdynia port already at the waterfront

Port Gdynia crossed another line. Friday, July 24th, to the terminal BCT wrapped a container ship measuring 399 meters MSC Venice, the largest ship ever entered the Gdynia port.

Container ship nearly 400 metres long

MSC Venice entered the port in the morning and docked at the Helski wharf at the Baltic Container Terminal. Previously, the unit had been waiting on the Rede because an MSC container ship was operated at the wharf. Camille with a length of over 365 m.

The most important stage of the operation was the ship's turnover in the port channel. The manoeuvring of the measuring unit nearly 400 metres has run smoothly and confirmed that the investments made in recent years allow the handling of container ships with parameters similar to the maximum prescribed for the current port infrastructure.

At the entrance, rotation and mooring of MSC Venice used Fairplay Towake Polska tug assists.

MSC Venice takes over 16,000 TEUs

The container ship was built in 2016 in South Korea. It flies the flag of Liberia and is 399 metres long and 54 metres wide. Its load capacity is about 186,7 thousand tonnes and maximum dive It's over 16 meters.

The ship can carry up to 16,652 TEU, i.e. containers of a standard length of about 6 metres. This is its maximum capacity, not the number of containers served when wrapping to Gdynia. The actual volume of handling depends on the number of containers to be landed and loaded in Gdynia.

MSC Venice supports ocean connections between ports of Asia and Europe. In terms of capacity, it yields to the latest containers of more than 24,000 TEUs, but its length puts it among the largest ships served in Baltic ports prepared to receive units of this class.

Investments opened port to larger ships

Adoption MSC Venice was possible thanks to the expansion of the infrastructure of the Port of Gdynia. The pilot's entrance was expanded from about 102 to 140 m, the approach path, canals and port pools were deepened, rebuilt Quay Helsinki, and the diameter of Rotator No 2 has been increased to 480 m.

Thanks to this work, the port can operate container ships up to 400 m long, 58 m wide and immersing about 14.5-14.7 m. The BCT terminal itself has a 800-metre-long quay and waterfront cranes extending over 19 rows of containers.

Important test, but not permanent ocean service

Include MSC Venice it verified in practice the possibilities of the Port of Gdynia, as a container ship nearly 400 m long was safely introduced into the port, turned and moored at the BCT terminal.

However, this does not automatically trigger a regular direct ocean link operated by ships of this size. This will be decided by shipowners, the size of available cargoes, the immersion parameters and the competitiveness of tri-city terminals towards other Baltic ports.

The first wrapping of a ship of this class showed that infrastructure Port of Gdynia is ready to operate the largest container ships. The port can now be more effective in seeking new shipping services and regular wraps of units with similar parameters.