K-Line holds naming ceremony for 5,600 TEU containership

A naming ceremony for Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-Line) Ltd.'s newly built container vessel, the "Golden Gate Bridge" was held in the Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan shipyard on July 27.

A total of 12 vessels, seven of which were ordered from HHI, are scheduled for delivery to K-Line between July of this year and May of 2002. The remaining five will be delivered from the Imabari shipyard during the period of September 2001 to July 2002.

As a matter of fact, the first vessel series, the GGB series, honors the name of the first full container vessel which launched the containerization era in Japan in 1968.

Seventeen years later, the second GGB was completed and now, due to this newly built vessel, was renamed the "Howrah Bridge". It operates in Southeast Asia and Europe trades with K-Line, Evergreen, COSCO and MISC.

This GGB measures 283 meters long, 40 meters wide, 24 meters high and serves 28 knots with an 80,000 hp engine.

The naming ceremony was attended by about a hundred people including Mr. Kondo, managing director of Toyota motors, Mr. Hyungbyuk Kim, the chairman of HHI, Mr. Kilseon Choi, president of HHI, Mr. Isao Shintani, the president of the Japanese company K-Line, and Mr. M.H. Kim, president of Dongwoo Marine Co., Ltd., the Korean agent for K-Line.

Mrs. Yoshie Kondo christened the "Golden Gate Bridge" which left for Kaohsiung after the ceremony.