MSC Oscar, the world's largest container ship, belonging to the Mediterranean Shipping Company, arrived at the Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal in Shandong province on Jan 28 and completed the handling of over 5,697 twenty equivalent-unit (TEU) containers.

The ship, built by South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering Co (DSME), is 395.4 meters in length and 59 meters in width and can carry a total of 19,224 TEU containers.

The ship will call at 19 ports, including Qingdao, in Shandong province; Ningbo, in Zhejiang province; Busan, in South Korea; Rotterdam, in Holland; and the Suez Canal.

The city of Qingdao has handled an increasing number of container vessels in recent years. From 2010 to 2014, the number of container vessels calling at the city carrying over 12,000 TEU containers has increased to 349. The Danish container vessel, Mary Maersk, made its maiden voyage into Qingdao Port on Sept 18, 2013.

The Geneva-based, Mediterranean Shipping Company, as one of the largest global shipping companies, offers over 200 shipping routes to major international and domestic destinations covering Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Middle East.