The honour to own the world’s largest container vessel seems to have gone to China Shipping this time, albeit for the moment at least.

China Shipping, one of the world’s fastest growing shipping line, signed last week a letter of intent with Samsung Heavy shipyard to build 9,000 TEUs capacity vessel.

The shipping line, which recently placed orders for five 4,050 TEUs container ships at the S Korea shipyard, is poised to become the first line to own the largest container ship to be built although a few others are contemplating building even bigger ones, including P&O Nedlloyd which indicated recent it is looking at 10,000 TEUs vessel.

China Shipping is said to looking at the prospect of deploying the ultra large container ships in a dedicated shuttle service linking Hong Kong, China and the US west coast in the light of a dramatic expansion in trade expected with China entry into the World Trade Organisation.

It is understood that China Shipping wants the 9,000 TEUs container ships with 18 containers stowed across deck and powered by a Man B&W RT12CT98 engine to be delivered in mid-2004.