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10/13/04 - One of the largest container ships in the world, the 8,200-TEU MSC Texas, made its maiden call to the Port of Long Beach, docking yesterday morning at SSAT's Pier A container terminal.

While not quite as big as its namesake, the newly built MSC Texas - owned by the Mediterranean Shipping Company - is 1,096 feet long, which is longer than three football fields, and 140 feet wide - some 30 feet wider than the Panama Canal. 

The new MSC ship, with a draft of almost 48 feet, can carry enough cargo in containers stored below-deck and stacked eight-high above-deck to completely fill a 1 million-square-foot regional shopping center with clothing, shoes, toys, sporting goods, consumer electronics, and a vast array of other products.  

The MSC Texas is among a new generation of 8,000-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit (TEU) vessels that have begun to call at the Port of Long Beach, one of the few US ports with access channels and deep-draft container terminal facilities capable of handling these giant vessels fully loaded. 

The new containership is the first of at least eight 8,200-TEU vessels that MSC has ordered from shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea.

Switzerland-based MSC will deploy two of the giant vessels with its French alliance partner, CMA CGM, in a rotating transpacific service linking the Chinese ports of Xiamen, Chiwan, Hong Kong, and Yantian with the Port of Long Beach.

In addition to the Mediterranean Shipping Co., four other ocean carriers currently have 8,000-plus TEU ships calling in Long Beach - Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL); China Shipping Co.; China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO); and CMA CGM.

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