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The largest Rickmers ship ever to call at the port of Hamburg arrived at Burchardkai Terminal on Friday, 13th August.

The 13,100 TEU Maersk Edinburgh, which was christened Pearl Rickmers in South Korea on 2nd July, was built for the Rickmers Group by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan and is now on a ten-year charter to Maersk Line.

The Maersk Edinburgh is powered by a single Hyundai-Wärtsilä 12RT-flex96C main engine weighing over 2,000 tonnes and developing 68,640 kW (MCR) at 102rpm and 61,776kW (NCR) at 98.5rpm. Five 2,700kw diesel generators are installed.

Although designed for a service speed of 24.3 knots, the flex-engines still achieve 21.5 knots at 60 percent of the engine's normal output but can also slow steam as required under charterers' current service patterns, thus generating substantial fuel savings. By having this substantial speed reserve, the ships can also increase speed when necessary to maintain schedule integrity.

The principal dimensions are as follows:

Length (oa): 366 m
Length (bp): 350 m
Beam: 48.2 m
Depth: 29.85 m
Design draft: 14.5 m
Scantling draft: 15.5 m
Deadweight:
125,480 mt at 14.5m
140,580 mt at 15.5m

Containers are carried 17-wide below deck and 19-wide on the hatchcovers. The maximum capacity of each ship is 7,074 TEU on deck and 6,018 TEU below deck, making 13,092T EU in total.

Based on a homogeneous container weight of 14 tonnes per TEU, the maximum capacity is approximately 9,080 TEU. Reefer plugs are available for 800 x 40ft containers.

Immediately after delivery, Maersk Edinburgh was phased in to Maersk's new joint service with CMA CGM linking Asia and North Europe. As Maersk's AE8 service, it will deploy ten ships of this size, each partner contributing five. The port rotation will be:

Ningbo - Shanghai - Yantian - Tanjung Pelepas - Port Kelang - Le Havre - Hamburg - Rotterdam - Zeebrugge - Port Kelang - Singapore - Ningbo.

By the end of August Maersk Edinburgh will have been joined on this service by three more vessels owned by Rickmers Group with Maersk Emden due to arrive Hamburg on 27th August.

Maersk Emden will be followed by Maersk Eindhoven (Aqua Rickmers) on 24 September and Maersk Essen (Coconee Rickmers) on 8th October. Four more 13,100TEU Rickmers vessels will join Maersk Line in 2011.