China's largest container vessel, COSCO Long Beach, arrived Wednesday at the Port of Long Beach, the biggest on the western US coast, after a 17-day maiden trans-Pacific voyage starting from Xiamen city, southeastern China.

At a ceremony marking the maiden call of COSCO Long Beach, Beverley O'Neill, mayor of Long Beach city, praised COSCO's contributions to the expansion of US-Sino trade and the development of the city's economy, saying today is "a great day" for the city.

Xu Lirong, managing director of COSCO's container lines, said the company's enlarged fleet capacity will surely well accommodate the rapid growth of trade between China and the United States.

"As the new ships sail faster, they will save the time that the goods stay at sea. As the new ships are larger, they will safely protect the containers on board in which the goods are carried in bad weather," he said.

Xu said the ship was named as COSCO Long Beach to honor the great partnership between COSCO, China's biggest shipping company,and the Port of Long Beach, the main gateway for China's exports to the United States.

The newly built mega-ship, leased by China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO) from a German company, is 300-meter long, which is longer than three football fields, and 42.8-meter wide, which is wider than the Panama Canal.

COSCO Long Beach is one of COSCO's five new container vessels with a loading capacity of 8,000 standard containers and a deadweight capacity of 77,000 tons. The other four vessels will beput into service for the trans-Pacific line soon.

Source: Xinhua