Meet The Ship That Can Carry 18,000 Containers

Due to the demand for products from Asia still growing in the US and Europe the need for larger ship capacities grows.

This need has been answered by the Triple E. Which will become the largest ship operating on the seas.

Being a quarter of a mile long and standing at over 60m it really is a massive feat of engineering. To create this giant more steel will be needed than would be needed to create 8 full scale Eiffel Towers.

With the capacity to carry over 18,000 shipping containers this is a massive advancement in the shipping and logistics industry, that means it could transport 36,000 cars or over 800 million tins of food. This also proves to be good news for logistics and transport companies including those that deal in the containers and also in polyester strapping to secure cargo.

This behemoth will only be able to dock at specialised ports, none of which are currently found in America. Shipping company Maersk are building the ships to operate their service between Asia and Europe.

Whilst the containers will arrive full when they leave Europe most of them will be carrying nothing but air.

The news of this ship may seem grim for environmental groups, however, the firm Sustainable Shipping has said: "When you get bigger ships, you can more efficiently carry more cargo, so the fuel footprint you get per tonne of cargo is smaller"

Loading the massive ship will also prove a challenge for port companies due to the volume of containers.