The average size of container vessels deployed on the Asia-U.S. West Coast route will continue to steadily increase, but mega-ships such as the 18,000-TEU Benjamin Franklin are unlikely to be deployed on the trade in the short term, Drewry believes.
However, Drewry pointed out in its Container Insight Weekly that nine cranes were assigned to the ship, a luxury that might not have been afforded to it had it not been for the slack holiday period.
The return of the ship in late February to U.S. waters — this time to Long Beach — after having taken up a position as a key pre-Chinese New Year loader in Asia, will undoubtedly be a more testing challenge to the terminal ship planners, the analyst said.
