CMA CGM plans to upgrade a trans-Pacific service to the West Coast by deploying six ships with capacities of 18,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units, starting late May, a bet that container terminals can handle the largest mega-ships to call the U.S. and that volume will steadily grow.
Rodolphe Saade, vice chairman at the French carrier, told JOC.com Thursday that it’s likely the current service loop — Yantian, Long Beach, Oakland, Fuquing, Xiamen, Nansha and Hong Kong — will remain the same when the larger vessels are deployed, but the specifics have yet to be confirmed.
Saade rejected criticism that U.S. West Coast ports can’t efficiently handle the mega-ships, saying Los Angeles and Long Beach handled the Benjamin Franklin “very well.” Saade said CMA CGM is considering deploying mega-ships from Asia to the Pacific Northwest ports as well.
