On 21 May there was a double celebration for the port of Southampton and the DP World Container facility when United Arab Shipping Company’s (UASC) newest vessel, the 2012-built container vessel Malik Al Ashtar (141,077gt, pictured), made her maiden call at the port. Her arrival also marked the first time a UASC vessel has called at the port.Malik Al Ashtar is the eighth vessel in a series of nine A13 class ships that were ordered from Samsung Heavy Industries in 2008 and measures 366m by 48m. She has a capacity of 13,100TEUs and is deployed on the AEC8 Far East-Red Sea-Europe Service, which is operated in conjunction withCMA CGM and MSC.
After completing approximately 1,800 container moves at Southampton, the vessel sailed the next day for Hamburg, where she was officially named on 25 May by Emanuel Schiffer. She also calls at Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Jeddah, Port Klang, Rotterdam, Le Havre and Zeebrugge during her rotation.
