Rebounding demand has enabled French line CMA CGM to claim the record for the most containers ever carried on a single vessel.
The company said its new LNG-fuelled CMA CGM Jacques Saade had 20,723 full containers on board when it left Singapore on Monday.
This is the first time a boxship has carried more than 20,000 teu.
The vessel is the world’s largest LNG-fuelled boxship with a capacity of 23,112 teu.
But it has now taken the cargo record from the largest-ever containership, HMM's 23,964-teu HMM Algeciras, which loaded 19,621 teu in Asia in May.
CMA CGM hailed "a major operational and commercial achievement for a pioneering vessel designed to preserve air quality and accelerate energy transition in the shipping industry".
The giant CMA CGM Jaques Saade was delivered in September from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) in Shanghai.
HMM giants show market strength
It is now on a maiden voyage on the French Asia Line (FAL 1) loop, connecting Asia with Europe. This service provides 13 calls over 84 days.
HMM's record-breaking vessel had claimed the title of largest ship from MSC's 23,756-teu MSC Gulsun (built 2019), which had carried 19,574 boxes.
The HMM Algeciras was the first of 12 sisterships delivered from DSME this year.
The South Korean company has now fully loaded each one, signalling the strength of markets following Asian Covid-19 lockdowns earlier this year.
HMM explained at the time that it believed the maximum loadable capacity was 19,300 teu, to take into account safety of vessel operations and cargo weight.
But the shipowner has exceeded this figure a little on all 12 ships so far.
