Southampton is to become the UK port-of-call for the biggest container ships in the world, emphasising the docks' ability to handle this new breed of mega vessels.

Last week the huge, OOCL Shenzhen, with a capacity to carry 8,063 container units, made her maiden call to the city and now the port is waiting for the arrival of her sister-ship OOCL Long Beach later this year.

OOCL Shenzhen, which has already made it into the Guinness Book of Records as the largest vessel of its type operating today, is set to become a familiar and regular sight alongside Southampton Container Terminals in the city's Western Docks.

The ship, operating on the company's China Europe Express service, is the initial delivery in a batch of eight similar "SX'' class ships to be ordered by Hong Kong's Orient Overseas Container Line and built by Samsung Heavy Industries of Korea. Two ships are scheduled for this year, four during 2004 and a further two in 2005.

OOCL Long Beach is due for delivery towards the end of this month and is expected in Southampton on its first visit in early autumn.

Southampton handles 50 per cent of all British trade with the Far East and last year the port saw a total of 1,275,000 containers from all services pass over the quayside.

While OOCL Shenzhen was in Southampton scores of representatives from import and export businesses, the shipping industry and port management toured the ship before the vessel left for Hamburg and Rotterdam en route to the Far East on the 56-day long voyage.

Ted Wang, OOCL's managing director in Europe, said: "We are delighted to welcome OOCL Shenzhen to Europe, which underlines our commitment to serving our customers growing level of business with China and the rest of Asia.

"The SX class vessels will give us excellent service and economies of scale in the years to come and help OOCL provide the vital link in world trade.''