MV Colombo Express

The Colombo Express is the one of the largest container ships in the world.

The Colombo Express holds an impressive 8,749 TEU's (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units), 730 refrigerated (reefer) TEU's, is 1,099 feet (335m) long, and has a beam, or width, of 140 feet (43m). She is owned by the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, and operated by the Hapag-Lloyd Container Line division. Named for the largest city in Sri Lanka, Colombo, which the predecessor company, North American Lloyd, first called on in 1886. She is the first of eight proposed Colombo Express Class vessels, and is only slightly larger (approximately 4%) than her Savannah Express Class cousins, the 8400 TEU (700 reefer) ships, the Savannah Express and the Houston Express. The Colombo Express weighs 103,800 dead-weight-tons (metric), and has a top speed of 25.0 knots. Built in Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2004-2005, she was christened on 11 April 2005, and her diesel engine generates 93,500 horsepower or 68,640 kW of power.

The Colombo Express operates out of the homeport of Hamburg, and will mainly travel from Europe to Southeast Asia and back in 56-day round-trips.

The *Colombo Express* on its maiden voyage into Hamburg, with the Köhlbrand bridge in the background, in April of 2005

External links

Colombo Express @ Hapag-Lloyd Container Line

Colombo - Ceylon - Overviews