The final newbuilding of a series of six identical Hamburg Süd container vessels, each with a slot capacity of 5,900 TEU, was christened yesterday evening in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Sponsored by Katharina von Malaisé, the Rio Madeira was christened following her delivery to Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries in Romania in mid-November 2009.
Having been briefly deployed in Hamburg Süd's Asia–South America East Coast service, the vessel is due to be phased into the shipping group’s Europe–South America East Coast service.
The ship is named after the Amazon’s largest tributary, the 3,380km-long River Madeira.
Meanwhile, the shipping company has confirmed that this year will see the delivery of a further four Hamburg Süd container ships.
Scheduled for delivery in the first six months are two Cap vessels each with a capacity 4,600 TEU, to be followed in the second half of the year by two Santa-class ships.
Each of the Santa vessels will boast a slot capacity of 7,100 TEU, making them the largest vessels in the group's history.
