In June Klaipeda Seaport reported about the largest vessel ever entering the Seaport within the entire period of its history " it was the 324,8 meter-long container ship žMSC Charleston. However, after a couple of months this record has been improved " today Klaipeda Seaport received the 336,68 metres in length and 45,60 metres in breadth containership žMSC ASYA . The vessel is able to accommodate 9178 TEU and her maximum draught is 15,3 metres.

žUp to now the function of rendering services and distributing the containers to smaller vessels, the so called žtransshipment has been traditionally the prerogative of the large seaports of the Western Europe - Rotterdam Antwerp, Hamburg and others. From now on Klaipeda Seaport is ready to accommodate both feeder and ocean going vessels " container ships. Accommodation of the container ship ž MSC ASYA today has served the best evidence of that. We believe that the number of ocean " going vessels will increase in our seaport, told the director general of Klaipeda State Seaport Authority Arvydas Vaitkus. Klaipeda Seaport is planning in the nearest future to start distributing containers to smaller, feeder, ships transporting the cargo to other Baltic Sea region seaports; in this case larger vessels transporting containers from other continents to our region will have the opportunity to avoid the cargo handling operations in traditional seaports of the Western Europe.

The vessel is berthed at the quays of the a-new constructed and officially launched JSSC žKlaipedos Smelte container distribution centre (HUB).

žThe call of the record size vessel žMSC ASYA to Klaipeda Seaport proves that mobilization of joint forces and implementation of the project of container distribution centre is a tremendous achievement to Klaipeda Seaport, as we have already started calculating vessels exceeding 300 metres in length. ž Klaipedos Smelte with its equipment, facilities and qualification of employees is totally prepared to unload or load efficiently containers to or from ocean "going vessels, - told the director general of JSSC ž Klaipedos Smelte Rimantas JuÅ¡ka.

Klaipeda Seaport is receiving the constantly increasing number of large vessels. According to the report of Internal Audit Department of Klaipeda State Seaport Authority the gross tonnage (GT) of vessels within the Ist half of 2015 has increased by 5 percent comparing with the corresponding period of the previous year. The review of the tendencies of recent years revealed that the number of vessels exceeding 200 metres in length has increased twice comparing with period 5 years ago (2009).