Grete Maersk makes history as biggest ship to dock at Jebel Ali

DP World's flagship port, the Jebel Ali Port, recently welcomed Grete Maersk, one of the biggest ships ever handled by the terminal in its 30-year history.

Officials from both DP World and Maersk held a ceremony aboard the ship to celebrate its maiden voyage to Jebel Ali Port.

The 367-metre long Grete Maersk, belonging to Maersk Sealand, is the longest ship to dock at Jebel Ali Port.

The ship, with a width of 43 metres and draft of 15 meters, has a capacity of approximately 8,200 TEUs (20- foot equivalent unit) and a gross register tonnage (GRT) of approximately 98 thousand tonnes.

The ship berthed at Quay 4 at Jebel Ali Port and was handled by four of the port's largest tandem lift gantries, the biggest of their kind in the world.

"We, at DP World UAE are proud to host Grete Maersk. This occasion fortifies our solid, long-standing relationship with Maersk and also affirms the position of Jebel Ali Port as a regional hub," said Mohammed Al Muallem, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of DP World's UAE Region.

"With its 17 metres draft capacity, Jebel Ali Port is poised to cater to the next generation of mega ships that exceed 13,000 TEUs," Al Muallem added.

Jebel Ali Port is undergoing a major expansion to the construct a new container terminal (Terminal 2), that will add more than five million TEUs to the overall capacity of the port by February 2009, raising the total capacity of the terminal to 14 million TEUs.

"The maiden voyage of Grete Maersk to Jebel Ali Port reiterates the magnitude and importance of the port as one of the biggest and most vital facilitators of import and export in the UAE and the Middle East region as a whole," said Henrik Petersen, Senior-General Manager, Operations Execution at Maersk Line.