OOCL christens newbuilding with nowhere to go

HONG KONG's container shipping line, OOCL, has held a christening to mark the delivery of its seventh panamax containership in a series of sixteen 4,500-TEU vessels on order from South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries.

The new vessel, christened the OOCL Norfolk, has not been assigned a trade lane for deployment.

OOCL has an invaluable partnership with HSH-Nordbank, and we are grateful for the support that HSH-Nordbank has provided to OOCL in financing both this and a significant number of our other vessels, said OOCL's chief financial officer Ken Cambie at the christening in South Korea.

The newbuilding has been named after the US east coast Port of Norfolk in Virginia. With its strategic location at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk's deep-water channels provide a vital link for the import and export of goods from across the US and around the world. We are certain that the OOCL Norfolk will live up to its name by providing a vital link to world trade, a statement from the carrier added.

Source: Schednet