MSC’s Mega Container Vessel makes History

MSC’s Mega Tomoko in Grand Bahama – MSC’s largest container vessel made its maiden voyage to The Bahamas in February 2010. Built in 2006, MSC Tomoko stretches 1091 feet long and 142 feet wide. The call of MSC Tomoko means locals can take advantage of an all water service from China directly to the Bahamas. The visit of the MSC Tomoko is another major step in the continued commitment of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to Freeport Container Port and to The Bahamas.

By Taylor Ferguson


Freeport , Grand Bahama – The Tomoko, Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) massive container ship, glided into the Lucayan Harbour Wednesday, February 17, 2009 . The 95,000 ton MSC Tomoko was piloted by Master Mariner Captain Tihomir Djura Andric and made history as the largest container vessel to ever call on The Bahamas and berth at The Freeport Container Port.

The Tomoko, built in 2006, stretches 1091 feet long and 142 feet wide. The vessel can hold the equivalent of 8,400 TEU’s (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units). This is more than double the capacity of the average container ship, which can only carry about 4,000. Compared to the size of a Navy aircraft carrier, Tomoko is not only the largest container vessel to ever visit Grand Bahama or The Bahamas, but also the Eastern seaboard of the United States.

The ‘monster’ of a ship, as it is being called, visited ports in New York, Baltimore and Norfolk on its maiden voyage, before arriving in Grand Bahama. The route took it through the Suez Canal, which unlike the Panama Canal can accommodate vessels of this size. The great ship draws 45 to 46 feet of water.
MSC, the world's second-largest container shipping line has made an indelible mark in The Bahamas with its Bahamas headquarters here in Freeport. MSC Bahamas has made enormous strides since it began operations here in 2001. The visit of the MSC Tomoko is another major step in the continued commitment of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to Freeport Container Port and to The Bahamas.

MSC Tomoko Stacked – The MSC Tomoko is shown docked at the Freeport Container Port full of 40-foot containers. This massive container vessel can hold the equivalent of 8,400 TEU’s (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units). This is more than double the capacity of the average container ship, which can only carry about 4,000. On its maiden voyage, the Tomoko traveled thru the Suez Canal and to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States before docking in Freeport, Grand Bahama.

MSC has easily become the direct link from Asia to The Bahamas. The call of MSC Tomoko and vessels like it to The Bahamas means locals can take advantage of an all water service from China directly to the Bahamas. The upgrade in fleet by MSC not only offers customers shipments on a single Bill of Lading; allowing them to avoid roll overs at the port of loading (due to bigger capacity), but it also means the shipper can take advantage of the economy of scales.

The Tomoko is visiting Freeport as part of a relatively new service operated by MSC dubbed the Golden Gate Service, which features several ships, most of them smaller in size than MSC Tomoko. Its circuit includes: New York; Baltimore; Norfolk; Freeport, Bahamas; the Suez Canal, Jedha, Saudi Arabia; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Singapore; Chiwan, China; Hong Kong; Shanghai; Ningbo, China; Chiwan, China; Yiantian, China; Singapore; Salalah, Oman.

MSC Bahamas began its services in 2001 with six service options through the Freeport Container Port with an annual volume of less than 700 thousand shipments. Today, those services and that volume have grown by leaps and bounds. Building on its notable successes in Grand Bahama, MSC Geneva answered a demand for service in Nassau and expanded there in late 2007.The employee count jumped from three back in 2001 to nearly sixty today.

The MSC Tomoko left Freeport on Friday morning headed back through the Suez Canal to Hong Kong . Another large MSC vessel is expected in port next week.

Largest cargo ship on route to Freeport

 

A fishing boat is dwarfed by the MSC Tomoko the biggest ship that's ever come into the Port of Hampton Roads, according to port officals. Here it's just east of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel on Monday, Feb. 15, 2010. (David B. Hollingsworth | The Virginian-Pilot)

By Robert McCabe
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 16, 2010

The biggest container ship to call on the port of Hampton Roads - the MSC Tomoko - arrived about noon Monday.

If you happened to be in the vicinity of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, it would have been hard to miss.

About as large as a Navy aircraft carrier, the Tomoko is about 1,090 feet long and 142 feet wide. It can carry the equivalent of about 8,400 20-foot containers, lined 17-wide across its deck. The huge white "MSC" initials on its hull stand for Mediterranean Shipping Co., the world's second-largest container shipping line.

The Virginia Port Authority late last week heralded the ship's arrival as a harbinger of the size of vessel the port will see once the Panama Canal is widened in about four years. The Tomoko and ships its size - and larger - are too big to pass through the canal now.

"The arrival of the MSC Tomoko marks an exciting milepost for The Port of Virginia," said Jerry A. Bridges, executive director of the port authority, in a posting on its blog. "The Suez Canal is unconstrained and the Panama Canal is undergoing a massive five-year expansion project. This doesn't mean all of the vessels calling Virginia are going to be this size, but this is the beginning."

Yet the authority blog posting offered little more information about the ship.

A Mediterranean Shipping Co. official in Charleston, S.C., who insisted on anonymity, said he could do no more than confirm basic facts about the ship, all of which can be found on the Internet.

The company official said the Hampton Roads stop was the line's third call in the port after including it in MSC's revised "Golden Gate" service, which links China and Southeast Asia with U.S. East Coast ports through the Suez Canal.

The Tomoko called in New York and Baltimore before heading to Hampton Roads, the MSC official confirmed. No one would say how long the ship would be in town, but its next destination is Freeport in the Bahamas before it steams back through the Suez Canal en route ultimately to Hong Kong.

Late Monday afternoon, port officials said they did not have accurate information about how many containers would be unloaded from and loaded onto the vessel, which berthed at Norfolk International Terminals.

Out of 4,661 container ships worldwide at the end of 2008, only 198 had a capacity of more than 8,000 20-foot containers, according to a 2009 report by RREEF Research, part of the Deutsche Bank Group.

Nearly 300 ships capable of handling 8,000-plus containers were on order, according to the report.