By Luis Alonso
Puerto Coronel attended the inaugural call of the container ship MSC Edna, a newly built vessel that joined the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) fleet in August of this year. This is the first time the ship has operated in Chile.
The ship, with a capacity of 11,480 TEU and propelled by conventional liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel, moored at berths 5 and 6 of the south dock of the maritime station located in the Bio Bio Region. It docked on the morning of Wednesday, October 29 and its stay will extend until the night of Thursday, October 30.
The unit, registered under the flag of Liberia, arrived at the Coronel port facility from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Its call at the multipurpose terminal will formally add the MSC Edna to the rotation of the NWC-USA-SAWC service.
Once its work in Coronel is completed, the container ship will begin the northbound leg of the service of the Switzerland-based shipping company. It is scheduled to arrive at the Port of Valparaíso during the night of Friday, October 31, specifically at the Terminal Pacífico Sur (TPS).
The MSC Edna is 335 meters long, 45.6 meters wide (18 container rows), has a deadweight of 135 thousand tons and a draft of 15.5 meters. The unit was christened alongside the MSC Adele, which operates on the NWC to SAEC String 1 service.
The container ships are part of an order for 10 CIMC Oric 11,500 LNG-type vessels that was placed by MSC in 2023 and is expected to be completed in 2026. To date, the MSC Insa, MSC Leila, MSC Serena, MSC Flora, MSC Muge, MSC Hortense and MSC Procida have also been launched.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that Puerto Coronel has also attended the inaugural calls of four other MSC container ships so far in 2025, namely the MSC Namibia, MSC Togo, MSC Cameroon and MSC Nigeria.
