WORLD'S LARGEST CONTAINER SHIP

It’s normal for things in the digital realm to get much larger very quickly, but it seems the same thing is happening with container ships, which seem to be more efficient the bigger they get. Samsung Heavy Industries recently launched the World’s largest container ship, breaking its own world record of 9200 teu (a teu is a 20 ft container) which it set less than 12 months ago. The Xin Los Angeles is the new heavyweight champ and carries 9600 teu - equivalent to 1.3 million 29 inch color TVs, or 50 million mobile phones. Whatsmore, the record will almost certainly be broken again in the near future as SHI has developed a 12,000 teu container ship design in co-operation with Lloyd's Register and is working on a container ship capable of carrying 14,000 teu. To put matters in perspective, SHI built what was then the world’s largest container ship in 1999 - it carried 6,200 teu. This ship is more than three times larger than the Titanic and has a crew of (you’ll never guess) … 

How many crew does it take to comfortably man the world’s largest container ship? Thanks to incredibly sophisticated automation, the answer is a staggering 19 men. 

The world's largest container ship, Xin Los Angeles, has been delivered by Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd (SHI) to Lloyd's Register class. The ship is owned by China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) and is operated by China International Shipmanagement Company Ltd, a joint venture between CSCL and V.Ships. 

The ship is 9,600 teu and is the first in a series of eight being built by SHI. The ship will trade from China to Europe initially and will eventually also trade to the US. Xin Los Angeles can carry a maximum of 18 rows of containers by eight tiers on the weather deck and 16 rows by 10 tiers in the holds.