On June 17, the YM Uberty made its first call the Port of Hamburg. Built at the CSBC shipyards in Kaohsiung, the container giant owned by the Taiwanese shipping company Yang Ming is 335 metres long, 42.8 metres wide and has a carrying capacity of 8,200 TEU and 700 reefer connections. Fully loaded (100.140 dwt) the vessel has a maximum draught of 14.5 metres.
The YM UBERTY is deployed in the AES-3 Europe–Far East service operated by the alliance of shipping lines CKYH (Cosco, “K“Line, Yang Ming, Hanjin Shipping), which was launched in November 2007 and is routinely processed at the Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg (CTH).
The deployment of the YM Uberty marks the beginning of a series of upgrades to the service on board vessels with a carrying capacity greater than 7,500 TEU (Very Large Container Ships - VLCS). In a first phase, another four units belonging to the Yang Ming shipping company are expected to join the service. By mid-2009, additional VLCSs owned by the partner company “K“ Line will further boost the AES-3 service, allowing weekly departures to be scheduled. Containerised traffic with Asia via Hamburg reached a total volume of 5.6 million containers (TEU) in 2007. The People’s Republic of China is by far the most important trading partner in containerised traffic for the port on the Elbe River, with 3.2 million containers (TEU).