Panorama Photo

Very interesting to see. The ship is not fully loaded. Is this due to partial unloading on the way already or due to reduced freight in the crisis? Cheers, Martin

hi Martin. I asked a ship reporter how these containers are placed on the ship. This is quite complicated because for reasons of stability, the weight must be divided well and the heavier containers low in the vessel. In addition, the containers with the same destination are grouped in the same compartment(s).
Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) is of course a South Korean company, so I suppose that most of the containers were loaded in that country and in Japan.
Then the fully loaded ship sails to many destinations in Europe for instance starting in Algeciras (Spain), then to Le Havre, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven,.... That is why some compartments are already empty. Of course empty containers must go back to Asia so they are stored again on the ship as well as freight from European countries to Asia. That is how it works in normal conditions but it may be that some of the empty compartments are now the result of corona.
During the corona lockdown, I didn't see many container ships but since the economy started up again, they (the big ones) are back in high numbers.

I've never seen such a giant with my own eyes, this must be an impressing moment for you.

to Silas: yes indeed and I can tell you hundreds of people came to Terneuzen to see this ship. It is simply incredibly big. That is why I presented it here heavily cropped from the pano, giving a much better feeling to the viewer how big it is.