 Largest ship to call on US East Coast to arrive next week: CMA CGM |
Source |
American Shipper |
Post Date |
05/24/2021 |
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The largest container ship ever to call on the North American East Coast will arrive next week because of a capacity increase on one of CMA CGM¡¯s main Southeast Asia services, the carrier said Friday.
The 16,022-TEU CMA CGM Marco Polo coming to the East Coast underscores the growing potential container lines see in deploying services to the Suez Canal to tap rising trade in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Those larger ships, however, can intensify import disges at marine terminals, challenging cargo flow.
The vessel is scheduled to first call in Nova Scotia on Monday, with subsequent stops on May 20 at the port of New York and New Jersey (NY-NJ), May 23 at the port of Norfolk, May 26 at the port of Savannah, and May 28 at the port of Charleston.
The Marco Polo is longer than three-and-half football fields, CMA CGM said, adding the containers it can carry would span nearly 61 miles if placed to .
The Marco Polo will be put in rotation on the CMA CGM¡¯s Columbus JAX service, which offers service from South Asia to both the US East Coast and West Coast. The only other vessel of that size on the Columbus JAX service is the 16,022-TEU CMA CGM Jules Verne, which serves the trans-Pacific trade lane.
CMA CGM said in a statement the capacity increase on the Columbus JAX service comes at a time when many of its US customers are ¡°experiencing unprecedented boosts in e-commerce sales and the resulting increased demand for goods.¡±
Ed Aldridge, president of CMA CGM North America, said the vessel¡¯s US East Coast calls are the result of the significant capacity boosts at ports and marine terminals.
¡°Their intelligent, timely infrastructure improvements to support larger ships make it possible for us to proactively respond to the needs of our customers,¡± Aldridge said in the statement.
CMA CGM set the US East Coast record last year with the arrival of the 15,072-TEU Brazil to NY-NJ in September. CMA CGM also broke the record for the largest container ship to visit North America with the 18,000-TEU Ben Franklin, which called on the West Coast in 2015.
The arrival of the Marco Polo comes as an increasing share of larger vessels are being put on US East Coast rotations, according to PIERS, a JOC.com sister product within IHS Markit. During the first 10 months of 2020, 15 percent of vessel calls were by ships with capacities of 10,000-TEU or higher, up from 11 percent in
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