THE world’s largest container ship lifted its 29-ton anchor from British waters yesterday to begin its return voyage, gathering up scrap and waste from around Europe in exchange for its cargo of Christmas goods from China.

Having unloaded 3,000 containers of consumer goods in less than 24 hours, the Emma Maersk left Felixstowe last night reloaded with crates of waste plastic, paper and steel from Britain.

Relieved of tons of su doku puzzles, cocktail shakers and toy gorillas, the vessel’s vast belly has now also been filled with more mundane British exports, such as nail varnish remover, cleaning products, cigarettes and alcohol.

Many of the 1,600 boxes picked up during its British pitstop, however, contained nothing. The exchange — which, for the ship dubbed “SS Santa”, must be the economic equivalent of a mince pie and a glass of milk — is a telling symbol of the one-sided trading relationship between the UK and Asia.

Its speedy turnaround, thanks to six cranes, 300 dock workers and a complex computerised loading system, also shows the sophistication of the container ship industry which is now relied upon to transport about three quarters of global trade.

A spokeswoman for Maersk Line declined to confirm the exact inventory of the cargo, citing security. However, she insisted that there were some British-manufactured goods on board.

“It will not all be waste,” she said. “We do still make some things in this country.”

The ship will spend the next three weeks unloading its remaining 8,000 containers in Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Gothenburg and Aarhus, before docking in Algeciras, Spain.

She will then cruise down the Suez Canal, courtesy of the world’s largest diesel engine, reaching Singapore on December 4.

After visiting Japan, the vessel will dock in the Pearl River delta of southern China, where her maiden voyage began.

The contrast between the cargo delivered from China and that which will be unloaded at Yantian Port, the fourth-biggest in the world, on December 10, is a pure picture of market forces today, said Jeremy Harrison, of the Chamber of Shipping. “She will probably be taking quite a lot of empty containers back because we have a trade deficit with China,” he said.

According to the Department of Trade and Industry, Britain exported just over £2.8 billion of goods to China, while importing a record £16 billion — 30 times more than in 1980. The UK accounts for a meagre 2 per cent of China’s trade.

The Emma Maersk might have picked up more than 1,630 containers from Felixstowe, but more than 33,000 containers leave Yantian every day. “We are not exactly giving them much back, are we?” said Anne Clinch, from Ipswich, one of hundreds of people who descended on the Suffolk coast at the weekend to see the 170,000-ton ship.

Mrs Clinch said: “They don’t seem to even want our luxury goods any more. It’s a shame.”

Day-trippers brought the roads around the dock to a standstill, but the distant position of the ship meant that, far from being dwarfed by the magnitude of the 200ft-high, quarter-of-a-mile-long vessel, most onlookers were left asking which of the ships it was.

Rita Soar, from Norfolk, admitted to being a little disappointed. “I did have to ask my husband if that was it. It looked so much bigger on TV”.

Focusing the binoculars on the distant blue hulk, which will sail the equivalent of 7.5 times around the world every year, she said: “It does seem very one-sided. We send them waste, they recycle it, and the whole cycle starts again.”

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