View of the Bay: Ultra-Large Container Ship Arrives at Port of Oakland Wednesday

Update, 6:50 a.m., Thursday, March 22: You may see photos of the MSC Fabiola;s arrival on the Oakland Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle websites. And if you took photos, please add them to this article.

Bay City News–The largest container ship ever to call any seaport in North America is arriving at the Port of Oakland today (Wednesday), port officials said.

The MSC Fabiola, operated by the world's second-largest shipping company, Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA, is arriving this evening from the Port of Long Beach and will be berthed at Oakland's international container terminal until Thursday, when it will embark on an 18-day voyage to Fuzhou, China.

The ship is almost a quarter-mile long and can hold more than 6,000 average-size containers.

As of 5 p.m., the MSC Fabiola had yet to arrive. A San Francisco Bar Pilots dispatcher said the vessel had passed by Alcatraz and was preparing to coast under the Bay Bridge.

(Editor's note: The vessel appeared to be moving under the Bay Bridge about 5:30 p.m.)

"Hosting the largest container ship ever to call in North America is what we mean when we say that the Port of Oakland is World Class, World Fast," Oakland Board of Port Commissioners President Pamela Calloway said Tuesday.

The port welcomes these ships "because they are the cleanest and safest in the industry," Calloway said. "They are also where the industry is headed and where we must head to continue to compete."

According to the port, the larger ships generally produce lower emissions per container, and create greater economies of scale and more service options for shippers.

Virtually all of the vessels in the ultra-large class of container ships to which the MSC Fabiola belongs are deployed in the Asia-Europe trade lane. Only 71 of the more than 5,000 container ships deployed worldwide are in the same capacity class as the MSC Fabiola.

Port Executive Director Omar Benjamin said that "bigger ships mean more boxes, and more boxes mean more jobs," noting that seaport operations support about 40 percent of more than 73,000 regional jobs generated by the port and its partners.

Ships arriving at Oakland tend to carry imports such as electronics, furniture, apparel, toys and auto parts. Outgoing ships export wine, rice, recycled paper, metal scrap and cotton, among other items, according to the port.

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