Port of Seattle Hosts Biggest Containership to enter Puget Sound

The largest container ship to ever visit Puget Sound will be at the Port of Seattle on Friday, March 18.

The COSCO Vancouver, owned and operated by China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), will discharge and load containerized cargo at Terminal 18. The massive ship was built at Hyundai Shipyards in Ulsan, Korea and launched on Nov. 5, 2004. It is the fifth ship of its type in COSCO's fleet. The four other ships are the COSCO Seattle, Long Beach, Shenzen and Yokohama.

The vessels are capable of carrying up to 8,000 container TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) - that's about 1,500 TEUs more than the next largest class of container ships now in service in the world's trade lanes. The ships are 985 feet long, 141 feet wide and have a deadweight of 77,000 tons.

The COSCO Vancouver is on its third voyage. Seattle is not one of the regular ports of call for the ship, but the vessel is making a special stop here to reposition empty containers that will be loaded with Northwest exports including frozen potatoes, onions and animal feed bound for Japan.

"While this ship's regular rotation doesn't bring it to Seattle, this gives us an opportunity to demonstrate that we have the facilities and equipment to handle the largest containerships afloat," said Charlie Sheldon, Managing Director of Seattle's Seaport. "That's important because the growth in transpacific trade, and the rapid growth we've seen in Seattle, means these ships may eventually be coming here on a regular basis.

Year-to-date through February, the Port of Seattle's overall container volume is up 45 percent. Inbound full containers are up 57 percent and outbound full containers are up 38 percent. The growth is the result of ample capacity at the Port's marine terminals as well as available capacity on the region's roadways and rail network.

"We ended 2004 with a 20 percent increase in container volume and there's every reason to think that we'll see very strong performance throughout 2005," said Sheldon.