Heralding the larger ships cascading into service from the Asia-Europe trades to the trans-Pacific, the ZIM Djibouti, the largest container ship ever to call in Tacoma, arrived at Washington United Terminals.

With a capacity of 10,000 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), the ZIM Djibouti is 1,145 feet long and 150 feet wide. Its length stretches more than twice the diameter of the Tacoma Dome and almost twice the height of the Space Needle. It holds about 40 percent more cargo than most of the container ships that call at the Port of Tacoma.

ZIM Integrated Shipping, based in Israel, began calling at the Port of Tacoma last July, when the Grand Alliance, a consortium of three of the world's largest shipping lines that includes Hapag-Lloyd (Germany), Orient Overseas Container Line (Hong Kong) and NYK Line (Japan), relocated to Washington United Terminals.

Ships continue to get larger, and we are ready for them, said John Wolfe, Port of Tacoma chief executive officer. We are fortunate to have naturally deep water, and we are investing in our terminals and road and rail infrastructure to handle more cargo and the associated super-post-Panamax ships and cranes.

The ZIM Djibouti is in the PNX trans-Pacific service. It called in Vancouver, B.C., before arriving in Tacoma. It is scheduled to head to Pusan, South Korea.