The Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT), International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI)'s Australian aubsidiary, recently welcomed the container vessel Soroe Maersk, the longest vessel to call at the Melbourne port.
The vessel's "record-breaking" maiden call shows that the Port of Melbourne is ready to accommodate the global trend of growing vessel sizes, Brendan Bourke, Port of Melbourne CEO, maintained.
Maersk deployed the Soroe Maersk to Sydney and Melbourne to load empty containers to be repositioned back to Asia where there is a shortage.
The vessel has a total carrying capacity of 9,640 TEUs and a record length of 346.98 meters, 11.28 meters longer than the previous longest vessels to call at the port.
The Soroe Maersk departed midday yesterday, April 6, after loading 4,148 TEUs.
“We welcome the Soroe Maersk and look forward to continuing to accommodate larger vessels of this size at VICT,” says Tim Vancampen, VICT CEO.
He also highlighted the need for continued investments to keep up with shipping line requirements for larger vessels calling in Australia.
"The Soroe Maersk port call into Melbourne allows us to test potential future network and infrastructure aspects, and use the one-off vessel call to reposition much-needed empty containers to demand locations in Asia,” explained Henrik Jensen, Managing Director of Maersk Oceania. The VICT is a fully-automated container terminal capable of servicing the largest existing and next-class vessels on trade and has been operating since 2017.