Port of Antwerp to welcome largest container ship ever

On Friday, the Port of Antwerp will welcome the largest container ship ever received in Belgium. According to the Vesselfinder website, the MSC Tessa is currently in Rotterdam and is expected to arrive at the MPET Terminal in Antwerp at around 11.00.

The MPET Terminal is Europe's largest container terminal and is operated by PSA Singapore and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). The new MSC Tessa is one of the largest ships in the Italian company's portfolio.

It has a capacity of 24,116 standard twenty-foot containers or TEU, the standard size for containers. It is 400m long, about the length of four football fields, and 62m wide.

However, the record will not stand for long, as the MSC Loreto (24,346 TEU) and the OCCL Spain (24,188 TEU) are expected in the Port of Antwerp soon after.

"High-performance infrastructure and additional container capacity remain priorities for us in order to stay among the top players in world ports," the port authority said this week. "The modernisation and deepening of the Europa Terminal, which has now started, will ensure that the latest generation of mega ships can continue to call at the Europa Terminal."

^{© BELGA PHOTO POOL JOHANNA GERON}