• 18 Jul 2018

German container carrier Hapag-Lloyd named its LNG-ready 15,000 TEU containership on Monday, July 16 at DP World’s London Gateway.

It took Mrs. Nusrat Ghani,Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, marking the official naming of the container ship, activating the mechanism that sent a big champagne bottle crashing against the massive sidewall of the “Afif”, a name of Arabic origin that  means “purity” and “honesty” and it is also the name of a city in central Saudi Arabia.

The “Afif” was built for United Arab Shipping Lines (UASC) in 2017– with whom Hapag-Lloyd merged in May of the same year. The ship is 385.5 metres long and 51 metres wide. In addition to that, the “Afif” is one of Hapag-Lloyd’s 17 “LNG-ready” ships, which are equipped with the technology to use liquid gas (LNG) as fuel. The ship was built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in South Korea.

“We are happy to once again name a ship in the United Kingdom after twenty years. The Afif is over three times the size of the ‘London Express’, a ship that received its name in Southampton, England, in 1998,” said Anthony J. Firmin, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Hapag-Lloyd.

“London Gateway is one of the most important terminals in Northern Europe. It offers Hapag-Lloyd a fantastic opportunity to unite customers and markets all over the world.”

2018 marks the five-year anniversary of the cooperation between port operator DP World and Hapag-Lloyd.

The “Afif” sails on the FE4 service, also known as Far East Loop. From Southampton, the ship will sail to Yantian, Shanghai, Busan and Ningbo before returning to Europe.

With a fleet of 221 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 1.6 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies. The Company has around 12,300 employees at sites in 127 countries in 387 offices.

Source:  Hapag-Lloyd