CMA CGM photo of the Benjamin Franklin during its maiden call at the Port of Los Angeles last month.
Published Sunday by the Journal of Commerce:
The flawless discharge and reloading of the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship ever to call at a North American port, proves the Southern California port complex’s efforts to more efficiently handle mega-ships are paying off, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said last week.
Execution of the plan to work the vessel, which has a capacity of 18,000 twenty-foot-equvalent units, began weeks before the ship left Asia. Then, 13 days before the Benjamin Franklin docked at the largest U.S. port, Los Angeles received the vessel stowage plans from Shanghai, Ningbo and Busan so it could mobilize the terminal, labor, trucking, rail and equipment provider sectors of the supply chain to be ready with sufficient assets and personnel.
The APM Terminal in Los Angeles worked as many as nine ship-to-shore cranes simultaneously against the Benjamin Franklin during its three and one-half day call, averaging 200 container moves per hour for a total of 11,200 lifts.