Maersk deploys fastest ships defying popular 'slow steaming'

Maersk Line's seven 4,170-TEU containerships are the fastest in the world and can move at a record speed of 29.2 knots, according to Clarkson Ship Register, working from Lloyd's Register statistics.

That would beat Hanjin Shipping's eight 6,655-TEU containerships from Hyundai Heavy Industries, reportedly the world's fastest box ships at 27 knots, reports American Shipper.

Such ships also go against the principle of "show steaming", the cost-saving, environmentally friendly technique increasingly employed by shipping lines in the last two years to heighten profitability.

Built at Germany's Volkswerft Stralsund yards, Maersk has ordered seven zippy 51,000-tonners, propelled by Wartsila-Sulzer 12RTflex96-C engines, the same propulsion unit that powers ships twice the size at 25 knots.

Maersk is deploying five of these fast ships on the transpacific TP8 service. One, the Maersk Beaumont, has come from the transatlantic.