On July 17, Hong Kong-based container carrier Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) and Salt Lake City, Utah, sailed the largest containership to date into the Port of New York and New Jersey.

The 13,208 TEU OOCL Berlin measures longer than 1,200 feet - or the equivalent of 4 football fields - and is the largest vessel to transit under the newly elevated Bayonne Bridge roadway. To date, the longest ships to call New York and New Jersey terminals have been 1,000 feet long.

The 144,100 dwt boxship was rotated to the Port of New York and New Jersey to load empties on one of its East Coast services.

The OOCL Berlin, which is operated in a vessel sharing agreement with Ocean Alliance (OA), partners CMA CGM, COSCO Shipping, and Evergreen, sailed into Newark Bay to dock at Maher Terminals Berth 68.

The OA and other carrier alliances have announced their intention to deploy even larger vessels of up to 18,000 TEUs to the Port of New York and New Jersey as cargo demand grows and as fewer East Coast ports are able to provide infrastructure sufficient to safely handle and work ships of this size.

The OOCL Berlin, built at South Korean Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in 2013, will be joined by a sister ship of identical size, the OOCL Malaysia, later this summer, according to the Port of New York and New Jersey.

As explained, three other ships from the same group — the OOCL Korea, the OOCL Chongqing, and the OOCL France — are being considered for future rotation to New York and New Jersey, based on market conditions in the second half of 2017.