The Mediterranean Shipping Company's MSC Judith, which pulled into the Port of New Orleans on Saturday (May 3), was the longest container ship ever to dock at the port, according to port officials.
The Panamanian-flagged container ship, which measures 1,066 feet in the length (the equivalent of three-and-a-half football fields) has a capacity of more than 8,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units, the port said. And while the port has hosted ships with more TEU capacity, the MSC Judith is the longest container ship to berth at the port by around 60 feet.
Port president and CEO Gary LaGrange said in a statement that Mediterranean Shipping is one of several major container lines serving the port. Others include Hapag-Lloyd, CMACGM, Maersk, ZIM, Seaboard and Libra.
The New Orleans terminal is designed to handle 640,000 TEUs per year, port officials noted. But the new Mississippi River Intermodel Terminal, currently under construction, is expected to push the capacity above 840,000 TEUs annually.