Title of world's biggest vessel shifts as rates fall

Singapore

THIS is how much size matters in the shipping industry: bragging rights for the world's largest container ship have changed hands four times in as many months - and will soon shift again.

With weak freight rates encouraging shipping lines to send as many goods as possible in a single voyage, Samsung Heavy Industries Co, the world's third-biggest shipbuilder, is constructing four vessels capable of carrying 20,100 20-foot containers - enough to fit about 203 million iPads - for Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd of Japan. Another two ships of the same size will be built by Japan's Imabari Shipbuilding Co.

The seaborne arms race comes even as overcapacity has led to…