CMA CGM Launches 18,000 TEU Containership

Container shipping firm CMA CGM Group has taken delivery of its newest colossal containership, the 18,000 TEU, 400-meter-long CMA CGM Bougainville.

 

Now the largest vessel sailing under the French flag, CMA CGM Bougainville is the fourth vessel of the 18,000 TEU series, all bearing the names of great explorers, in this case honoring French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who as captained the first French official world tour in the 18th Century.

 

At 400 meters long and 54 meters wide, this giant and her extraordinary dimensions add 18,000 TEU (20-feet equivalent containers) capacity to CMA CGM’s French Asia line calling at Le Havre every 77 days.

 

CMA CGM Bougainville was delivered by Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries on August 25 and begun its first rotation by calling at Asian ports. She will call at Shanghai on September 5, Port Kelang on September 13, Suez on September 15 and Algeciras on October 1 to finally arrive at Le Havre on October 5.

 

The ship has the capacity to transport nearly 200,000 tons of goods between European, Middle East and Asian markets and becomes a key element in such trades, according to CMA CGM. Thanks to its calls in the CMA CGM hubs at Malta and Klang ports, transshipment connections are offered toward worldwide markets, the group said.

 

CMA CGM Bougainville is equipped with many latest environmental technologies, allowing her to become one of the world’s greenest transportation solutions. Thanks to the latest environmental technologies onboard and the optimization of her hydrodynamics, her CO2 emissions/km are historically low. In fact, the vessel’s CO2 emissions average at only 37g of CO2/km for each container, energy efficiency almost three times higher than recorded by the group’s fleet 10 years ago.