Hanjin to launch world's biggest container vessel in 2012

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT -South Korean shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries Corporation-Philippines, Inc. (HHIC-Phil) will be launching in this free port next year the biggest container ship in the world, company officials said on Thursday.

Jeong Sup Shim, former president of HHIC-Phils, made the announcement during the visit of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the Hanjin shipyard at Subic's Redondo Peninsula.

Arroyo's visit to Subic was part of her week-long tour of areas in the Urban Luzon Beltway (ULB).

"We will be starting fabricating the biggest container ship in the world," Shim told the President.

The ship will be finished by late next year or early 2012, Shim added.

"So, now you are making more investments in the Philippines. Congratulations," Arroyo said in reaction to Shim's announcement.

According to HHIC-Phil officials, the company has just recently completed the "APL Bahrain," a 259.8 meter-long container ship built for the Singapore-based American President Lines (APL). The ship has a 4,330-TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) capacity.

Last week, APL Bahrain made its maiden voyage from the Hanjin shipyard at Redondo to the New Container Terminal 1 across the Subic Bay.

Last month, Hanjin also unveiled the 114,000-deadweight ton "Leyla K," the first and biggest crude oil tanker built in the Philippines. The ship measures 241.3 meters in length and 44 meters in breadth.

To date, some 36 vessels, including two 180,000-ton Capesize bulk carriers for Taiwan-based shipping company Hsin Chien Marine Co., Ltd., are already lined up for fabrication at the Hanjin shipyard, with delivery schedules before the end of 2012.

Hanjin's Subic operations started only in February 2006 with the construction of its shipyard, but the firm already delivered in 2008 its first Subic-made container ship, the "Argolikos" which was delivered to the Greek shipping company Dioryx.

By the end of 2009, Hanjin already finished constructing eight container ships here.

With this record, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman Feliciano Salonga said that HHIC-Phil has become the fourth largest shipbuilder in the world.

"This development puts Subic Freeport in the maritime map," Salonga added. (30)