September 2006, 37 th week CMA CGM Places Jumbo Carrier Record Order +++ Wan Hai and PIL to upgrade European Loop +++ Chinese Shipyard Capacity Set to Explode +++ Estelle Maersk +++ Zim Update +++ TNSW Delivers Nona +++ Hyundai Garnet Grounds in the Panama Canal +++ Coscon Reveals New Ships Names +++ Hanjin Budapest Delivered +++ Maersk Dryden Delivered +++ L'Amour est un Oiseau Rebelle +++ A late Picture: Hooge +++ Ships of Interest in Northern Europe +++ Emma Arrives at Bremerhaven CMA CGM Places Jumbo Carrier Record Order Hyundai HI of South Korea has secured a record order for very large container vessels from the French Line CMA CGM. At the end of last week, the deal that both parties have been working on for quite some time, became public when Hyundai reported the order to the South Korean stock exchange at Seoul. The Marseille-based shipping giant CMA CGM signed a total of eight container vessels with a nominal capacity of 11,400 TEU each. The order is worth some USD 1.2 billion. Thus, the French pay some USD 150 million per ship - USD 13,158 per TEU slot. In
the run-up to eventually securing the giant order, Hyundai HI had already reserved building slots for the vessels. These allow the ships to be delivered rather early: The lead vessel of the series is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2009. from then on the yard will hand over a new vessel every other month until June 2010. The containership contract is the biggest single order Hyundai HI ever accepted in their history. The shipyard group s shares immediately rose by 1.3 % after the deal was announced. The giant new ships will be 363m long and 45.60m (18 rows) wide. A 74MW diesel will drive them at a service speed of almost 25 knots. According to industry sources, the ship design has been developed by Hyundai in cooperation with classification society Bureau Veritas. Research carried out by your editors suggests that the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) will announce an order for similarly sized vessels very soon. It will be interesting to watch Coscon s and China Shipping Line s response. These companies are the foremost candidates to join the race for size and follow in the wake of Maersk. Since the big boats really seem to be catching on, we have included a fictional data sheet of two alternative ULCS designs as a pdf-file for our readers. It can be accessed through our website s download page for miscellaneous items. Artist impression of how a 363m +11,000 TEU container vessel might look like in CMA CGM colours. Drawing: Jan Tiedemann Wan Hai and PIL to upgrade European Loop Taiwanese Wan Hai Lines and Singapore s PIL will start introducing bigger tonnage on their joint Far East - Europe service soon. Starting from late November this year, the
companies will begin phasing in new 4,250 TEU vessels to replace their fleet of 2,500 to 3,000 TEU ships. The fleet upgrade will boost capacity by almost half. Pacific International will deploy newbuilds from Dalian New Shipyard in China, whereas Wan Hai Lines will shift vessels from their China Transpacific Loop. These ships become available since the CTS sling itself in being upgraded to larger tonnage. Six 4,250 TEU vessels will be introduced until the end of this year. The remaining two will follow in the first two quarters of 2007. Wan Hai 302 and her three sisters are by far the smallest ships employed on any Far East Europe loop. Photo: Jan Tiedemann Chinese Shipyard Capacity Set to Explode Several years ago, China announced to invest heavily in Shipyard Capacity. The People s Republic recently announced to build three large shipyards at Bohai Bay, at the estuary of the Yangtze River and in the Pearl River Delta. According to the national shipbuilding authority, all yards shall be operational within the next five years. China s plans include a much quicker capacity development than originally planned: Construction of three major shipyards will be sped up significantly. Furthermore, China tries to build up a network of suppliers for more advanced ship accessories than hitherto. Local authorities
are convinced that the nation will develop into the world s shipbuilding centre. However, China still needs to address challenges such as the industry s weak innovation abilities and the aforementioned less-developed building technologies for maritime accessories. Human resources, ocean access and strong domestic demand on the other hand, are in favour of China. In 2005, the giant nation s shipbuilding record stands at 12 million deadweight tons 18 percent of the world's total. Beyond Containers: Cruisers, Bulkers, Reefers and Tankers at Hamburg. please note: this banner is not a commercial advertisement Estelle Maersk Maersk Line s second container behemoth is no longer nameless. While not yet officially christened, your editors believe the new 13,500 TEU vessel will be named Estelle Maersk. This name was registered last week for L-204 s IMO number. Estelle is a traditional name within the blue Danish fleet. Just like the new ship, the last Estelle Maersk had been built at Odense shipyard. However, the 1994-built vessel was a 299,700 ton crude carrier. Today she trades as the Greekflagged La Madrina. In some respect this VLCC perfectly illustrates how containerships have grown far beyond expectations: At 56.40m both ships are of almost exactly the same width. The container carrier is however, more than 50m longer. Furthermore, the Estelle name has a longer history with Maersk Line. The first (semi-) containership to use it was built at Odense shipyard in 1979. Today, this vessel is part of the United States Navy and trades for the Military Sealift Command as Cpl Louis J. Hauge Jr. Containership-Info believes that Maersk Line will use at least some of the traditional family names for their new E-class container carriers: Evelyn, Eleo, Effie, Eli, Elisabeth, Ellen, Emilie, Eugen and Else. Some of
these are presently used by Maersk Line Tankers. Estelle Maersk is expected to join her owners AE 1 loop as the second Ultra large containership on October 26 th at Gotheburg. ZIM Update The Israeli carrier Zim Integrated Shipping Services, a member of the group of companies controlled by Sammy Ofer, is not exactly well positioned in the northern European market. Its core business is the trade between Asia, North America and the Mediterranean. The largest vessels Zim deploys to Northern European ports are the 4,800 panmaxes China Sea and Yangtze Star. These ships trade in a loop jointly operated with Chinese carrier CSCL. Zim also charters slots on a large number of services run by CSCL and CSAV-Norasia. Today, Zim s most important service is the company s round-the-world loop. It employs a total of eleven panamaxes of up to 5,000 TEU. In the past few years, Zim relied heavily on chartered tonnage of panamax dimensions. Since adequate ship weren t always available, Zim decided to increase the number of owned vessels. The subsequent order spree will more than double the carrier s capacity over the next years. At first, the company ordered eight 4,250 TEU ships from Dalian New Shipyard. Two of these, named Zim Xiamen and Zim Qingdao, are already in service. Sisters Zim Livorno, Genova, Shekou and Vancouver will follow until March 2007. The remaining two ships of the series were ordered later and will be delivered late in 2007 and early in 2008. This new series of ships will replace the Germanbuilt 3,000 and 3,400 TEU units, delivered in the early and midnineties. In addition to the eight owned vessels, Zim will charter four identical ships from Danaos. This quartet is scheduled for delivery in 2008. The next step in the fleet expansion programme will eventually propel Zim into the league of post-panamax ship operators albeit at a rather late point in time: London-based Zodiac Shipping, another member of the Ofer group, signed seven 6,300 TEU ships with Japanese builder Koyo Dockyard. These ships will be long term chartered by Zim, who additionally ordered two slightly larger units from Hyundai HI. Together, these nine vessels were intended to replace the panamax fleet in Zim s round-the-world service. Since the ships are too wide to transit the Panama Canal, the
service would have to be re-organised in shape of a pendulum or split into two new slings. The +6,000 TEU ships will come on stream from 2008, with the last two units due in 2010. Recently however, Zim s management decided not to use all the ships for themselves, but instead charter five of them to APL. At the same time, Zim opted for even bigger newbuilds: In a rather spectacular move, the company ordered four 8,200 TEU and five 10,000 TEU ships from the Hyundai shipbuilding group. All nine ships are scheduled for delivery in 2009. The entire order will cost Zim in the region of USD one billion. Apart from these large vessels, the company also secured a number of 2,500 TEU to 2,700 TEU units as long term charters. Details, that describe the revamp of Zim s services are not yet available. However, it is quite clear that the existing service network needs to be reorganised dramatically, since it still includes a high number of Panama Canal transits. As of July this year, Zim s present fleet (including chartered tonnage) stands at 54 ships with total capacity of 160,000 TEU. The company s pipeline will add an additional 33 ships with some 196,000 TEU. Since adding that much capacity means the company will need a whole lot of new containers, Zim acquired a 25 % share in a container factory near Shanghai and holds a minority stake in a Qingdao-based box factory, too. Some sources suggest, that the Israeli shipping company also wants to expand its terminal activities. TNSW Delivers Nona Elsfleth (Germany) based Gesellschaft für maritime Dienstleistungen has taken delivery of a new 2,702 TEU containership. The vessel is called Nona and has been constructed at Thyssen Nordseewerke at Emden, Germany. Nona is 215.50m long, 29.80m wide and travels at a speed of up to 22.3 knots. She is powered by a 21MW 7-cylinder engine. According to our sources, the ship will trade for Zim, connecting the Mediterranean and the US East Coast.
The newbuild Nona at Hamburg s Burchardkai (HHLA). Photo: Jan Tiedemann Hyundai Garnet Grounds in the Panama Canal Despite the fact that no detailed information is available yet, your editors understood that the container carrier Hyundai Garnet has grounded during a passage of the Panama Canal. Reportedly, the 4,400 TEU vessel suffered a failure of its steering gear while on an eastbound passage. The ship carried a pilot and was still under its own power, but struck the banks of the canal as a consequence of the malfunction. Hyundai Garnet s crew managed to reverse off the bank and continue towards the Gatun locks. Soon after, the ship was sent to a local shipyard were some minor repairs were carried out. The incident delayed the ship s service by five days. Coscon Reveals New Ships Names Let s face it: Most containerships names are rather dull and uninspired. Naming vessels after cities, preferably ports, along with a company prefix has become a very popular choice among shipping companies. While some include cities far away from the ocean into their naming policy, others try to associate the names with the vessels intended route. Shanghai s China Ocean Shipping Co. traditionally used Chinese names for their
vessels, but changed this policy with the arrival of the 5,250 TEU Cosco Shanghai. This vessel, delivered in 2001 by Kawasaki HI, introduced the Cosco prefix that has since been used for the company s container carriers, along with the name of a city or a nation. It seems that the Chinese have tried to keep vessel names roughly in line with the ships actual trades: Cosco Shanghai, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Felixstowe and Antwerp are all employed in a service connecting China and Northern Europe. The company s five 7,500 TEU units employed on the Pacific are aptly named after the cities of Long Beach, Shenzhen, Seattle, Vancouver and Yokohama. Furthermore, Coscon s 8,200 and 9,500 TEU ships that serve the AE1 carry appropriate regional names, too. Greece received a special mention with Cosco Hellas, despite the fact that Coscon does not (yet) serve any Greek port. So maybe the name pays tribute to Athens-based Costamare who operate the five largest ships in Coscon s box fleet. Coscon s Australasian services include vessels like the 2,700 TEU Cosco Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Now, why do we mention all this? It s because Coscon has now released the names of the first 5,100 TEU ships the company will receive in a year from now. Again, the names of the ships might be a pointer to the trade they are destined to be employed in. The new ships will be Cosco Boston, New York, Charleston and Norfolk. This North American nomenclature does not come as a big surprise: Only recently Coscon s existing vessel Cosco Norfolk has been renamed Cosco Bremerhaven apparently for nor good reason, unless the Chinese wanted the Norfolk name to be available for a newbuild. Hanjin Budapest Delivered Less than two months after the delivery of the 26.5 knot Hanjin Bremerhaven, the Hanjin shipping group could take over the second ship of the family of container greyhounds. Hyundai Samho shipyard even finished the ship a few weeks ahead of schedule. Last week, the newbuild was christened Hanjin Budapest and followed its sister vessel into Hanjin s FEX service soon after. After calls in Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, Hanjin Budapest left the Far East and presently speeds towards the Suez Canal. She s bound to arrive at Rotterdam on
September 20 th and will visit Hamburg two days later. After only two mainland calls, the ship will leave Europe via Felixstowe. Altogether, the ship will only spend five days in north European waters before returning to Asia. Maersk Dryden Delivered Reederei Patjens from the north German Alte Land region, is a company that recently took one step up on the ladder and entered the league of panamax vessel operators. Recently, they took delivery of their second large vessel, the 5,040 TEU Herma P. Just like her earlier sister, Herma P entered a long term charter with Maersk Line. The ship left Hyundai HI s Ulsan yard under its charter name Maersk Dryden. The Danes placed the vessel in their Far East to Central America and Mexico express service. Maersk Dryden will be the biggest ship employed on this sling which mainly relies on 3,000 to 4,000 TEU vessels. Herma s next sister will be named Kaethe P and is scheduled for delivery in late October. The last ship of the quartet will follow early next year. L'Amour est un Oiseau Rebelle We have to admit: This is a pretty cheesy headline for the announcement of a new container vessel. However, since we could not resist to quote from operas and operettas to illustrate the names of CMA CGM s latest carriers so far, we might as well continue to do so. Deducting from the French headline, most of you will have already guessed the ship we re talking about Hamburg-based E.R. Schiffahrt has taken delivery of CMA CGM Carmen. She s the seventh 8,204 TEU ship in a series of nine, ordered from South Korean Hyundai Samho HI. With three ships of the type delivered to Coscon and four to CMA CGM, only two units of the design remain for E.R. Schiffahrt. These vessels will be chartered to CMA CGM who sub-charter them to MSC. The French Line placed Carmen on the FAL I loop, where she has joined her earlier sisters and some similarly-sized Tosca types. With the introduction of the new vessel, CMA CGM completed the FAL I s upgrade from 6,500 TEU units to ships of 8,200 TEU. Carmen has already left China and is on her way to Europe. She is expected to reach Le Havre, CMA CGM s
French hub port, on September 28 th. A call at Rotterdam is scheduled for September 30 th while Hamburg, the hometown of her owners and managers, will eventually be reached on October 2 nd. From here, Carmen will return to Asia via Zeebrügge and Southampton. A late Picture: Hooge Two weeks ago, we had already announced the christening of the small container vessel Hooge at Hamburg. Since Hooge is a new type of ship in Baltic feeder operations out of Hamburg, we would like to provide you with a photograph of the ship. Hooge upon her second departure from Hamburg. Photo: Jan Tiedemann Ships of Interest in Northern Europe The following list contains a number of ships of interest and the dates of their first scheduled calls in Northern Europe s ports. In this edition the list comprises only of newbuilds. Older ships that visit the north range for the first time are not included. Please note that these are estimated times of arrival. Actual dates may vary, so please check your local port s online schedules for confirmation.
September 11 th to November 16 th ships at Hamburg vessel name TEU Date status OOCL Europe 8,079 September 12 th new ship YM Unity 8,200 September 13 th new ship Pucon 6,450 September 19 th new ship Hanjin Budapest 6,620 September 22 nd new ship CMA CGM Norma 9,415 September 25 th new ship Chacabuco 5,527 September 26 th new ship Hyundai Tokyo 6,800 October 8 th new ship CSCL Pusan 9,580 October 11 th new ship Granville Bridge 5,900 October 13 th new ship CMA CGM Carmen 8,204 October 14 th new ship CMA CGM Rigoletto 9,415 November 1 st new ship Hanjin Port Kelang 6,655 November 3 rd new ship YM Utmost 8,204 November 16 th new ship ships at Bremerhaven Estelle Maersk 13,500 October 30th th new ship ships at Rotterdam YM Unity 8,200 September 11 th new ship Emma Maersk 13,500 September 13 th new ship Hanjin Budapest 6,620 September 20 th new ship Pucon 6,460 September 21 st new ship CMA CGM Norma 9,415 September 25 th new ship Chacabuco 5,527 September 28 th new ship Hyundai Tokyo 6,800 October 5 th new ship CSCL Pusan 9,580 October 9 th new ship Granville Bridge 5,900 October 9 th new ship CMA CGM Carmen 8,204 October 14 th new ship CMA CGM Rigoletto 9,415 October 30 th new ship Estelle Maersk 13,500 November 1 st new ship Hanjin Port Kelang 6,655 November 1 st new ship YM Utmost 8,204 November 13 th new ship ships at Antwerp YM Unity 8,200 September 16 th new ship Pucon 6,450 September 22 nd new ship Chacabuco 5,527 September 29 th new ship YM Utmost 8,204 November 18 th new ship Please also note that we cannot guarantee for the completeness of this list. There are more new vessel scheduled delivery in the relevant period of time, but accurate information on the ship s first employment and ports of call is not always available.
Emma Arrives at Bremerhaven Let s round up the weeks of Emma Maersk coverage with a nice picture from Bremerhaven. Splendid sunshine greeted the new vessel when she arrived in Northern Germany on Sunday to load some 3,000 containers destined for the Far East. Local tugs welcome the new record ship Emma Maersk upon her maiden arrival at Bremerhaven, Germany. Photo: Boris Paulien *** This Newsletter is edited and compiled by Jan Svendsen and Jan Tiedemann. This pdf-file is available for download at www.jantiedemann.de and www.containership-info.net.tc. Feel free to contact the editors by e-mail at jantiedemann@hotmail.com and jan.svendsen@gmx.net. We greatly appreciate your feedback and your input. More contact details can be obtained from the above websites. Please note the disclaimers displayed on the download pages. All information given in this newsletter is believed correct, but not guaranteed. For assistance with the present issue, the editors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Helge Barth and Klaus Masuch.