August 2006, 35 th week Emma is Early +++ Rumblings at TUI +++ Mitsubishi Delivers Ever Superb +++ 3,500 TEU Ships: Shanghai Chengxi s Success Story +++ Hyundai Samho Hands Over CMA CGM Norma +++ Feeder Vessel Hooge Christened +++ Charlotte Maersk Bumps Into MSC Jessica +++ New Gantries for Bremerhaven and Gothenburg +++ Surprise: E.R. Ships for MSC +++ MSC Tomoko Makes Her European Debut +++ Hanjin 10,000 TEU Ships Update +++ APMT Joins Nansha Port Operators +++ CMA CGM and CSCL Add Super Sling +++ More Mid- Sized Ships for CMA CGM +++ Another European Debut: Hyundai Hong Kong +++ Yantian Container Terminal +++ Cosco Germany Christened Emma is Early The 13,500 TEU Emma Maersk has performed so well during her sea trials that she will enter service a week earlier than
originally planned. The 397m vessel only left its building yard two weeks ago and was scheduled to commence its maiden voyage on September 14 th. This departure date has now been brought forward to September 8 th, when Emma will be phased into the AE1 on voyage number 601. Maersk s decision might have been pushed by recent news of soaring cargo volumes out of East Asia. The revised dates for the ship s European calls are: Bremerhaven on September 10 th and Rotterdam on September 13 th. Recent industry talk suggests that Felixstowe might be cut from the AE1 s port rotation rather surprisingly, since the port performed poorly and frequently delayed vessel departures. These rumours have so far not been confirmed. Rumblings at TUI German Hapag-Lloyd s parent TUI continues to make headlines as rumours of a divestiture of the liner shipping branch linger on. The company denies any such plans, but poor performance figures have put TUI under pressure. Some analysts believe that Hapag-Lloyd s takeover of CP-ships was too expensive and badly timed. They argue that the liner shipping market has passed its peak. Hapag-Lloyd executives argue that the purchase was a strategic move that will pay off in the future. Recent rumours suggested that Maersk Line might be interested in swallowing Hapag-Lloyd. Ironically, these rumours led to an increase in the company s stock exchange value, much to the relief of shareholders who have been plagued by undervalued shares lately. Mitsubishi Delivers Ever Superb There has been some confusion about the name of Evergreen Marine s most recent newbuild. According to press releases, the ship s hull was launched as Ever Spring. Presently, the vessel that has now been delivered is listed as Ever Superb. Mitsubishi HI is one of only a few shipyards that still launch ships down a slipway. Newbuilds from the yard are traditionally named on this occasion. In contrast, most modern yards name ships upon their delivery. For some reason it seems that hull number 1269 must have been renamed at some point between launch and delivery. Ever Superb is 300m long, 42.80m wide and draws
14.20m of water. She can carry a maximum load of 7,024 TEU. Ever Superb will join the carrier s HTW transpacific sling and call at Kaohsiung, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Yantian, Los Angeles and Oakland. AT the same time, Ever Superb was delivered, another ship of the type has been launched: Ever Steady is scheduled for delivery in December. 3,500 TEU Ships: Shanghai Chengxi s Success Story We usually don t go into detail with each and every type of containership build around the world. But every now and then, we just happen to find an individual containership design especially interesting for some reason. One of these designs is Shanghai Shipyard present 3,554 TEU type, which lately performed rather exceptionally in terms of orders. The first ship of the (then) new design was delivered to Hamburg-based Norddeutsche Reederei in June 2004. Its project name was Northern Devotion and went into long term charter with MSC, who named the ship MSC Queensland. The second ship of the design followed two months later. Then suddenly, all was quiet and no ships were delivered at all. This was the time when Shanghai Shipyard moved. The entire shipyard facility was relocated from central Shanghai to a newly developed site on Chengxi Island, opposite the Huangpu Rivers mouth. Ever since the relocation has been completed this Summer, the new facility is bustling with activity: The second pair of 3,554 TEU ships, and thus the first to be build on Chengxi Island, are due for delivery in the last quarter of this year. The first unit will be handed over to Reederei Thomas Schulte of Hamburg as Maria Schulte. It will be chartered to APL of Singapore who will employ this ship as APL Shenzhen. Then follows a long series of ships of this type, destined for several German owners. The Yard s launching customer for the type, Norddeutsche Reederei, has recently been active again. It s total order book stands at twelve units, due until late 2008. Reportedly, most of these ships, if not all, will end up with MSC. Another German customer that has placed orders with the yard is Hansa Shipping of Hamburg, who recently ordered two ships for delivery in 2009. Furthermore, Bernhard Schulte is said to have ordered a quartet of vessels, too. Not accounting for the two existing ships, Shanghai shipyard s pipeline for the new vessel type accounts for 22 units.
MSC Delhi, the second ship of Shanghai Shipyard s 3,554 TEU series, on the river Scheldt. Photo: Dirk de Smedt Hyundai Samho Hands Over CMA CGM Norma Frequent readers of our newsletter will probably be aware of the fact that CMA CGM are in the middle of an upgrade scheme for their FAL Asia - Europe service. This loop will eventually be served by ships of +8,000 TEU. Additionally, the French Line plans to start a new super sling, jointly operated with China Shipping Container Line (CSCL). This service is commonly referred to as the FAL II and it will employ eight ships of well over 9,000 TEU. The first ship destined to be employed in this new service is the 9,415 TEU CMA CGM Norma. This vessel has now been delivered to CMA CGM. It was built by Hyundai Samho HI. The 350m Norma is a sister ship of CMA CGM Medea, which Samho had delivered in June. Even though the French Line has not yet published any timetable details, your editors believe, CMA CGM Norma will start her career on the newly launched FAL II service. According to terminal operators sailing lists, CMA CGM Norma will arrive in Rotterdam on September 18 th and debut at Hamburg two days later.
Feeder Vessel Hooge Christened The French line CMA CGM are about to upgrade their feeder services into the Baltic Sea to larger capacity vessels. Last Tuesday, the new feeder ship Hooge was christened at Hamburg s Burchardkai. Hooge is not a typical Baltic feeder: The ship is 161m long, 25m wide and weighs in at GT 15,366. Opposed to most other feeders, it is equipped with two 45-ton cranes. The vessel s maximum capacity is 1,406 TEU, with a service speed of 19 knots. Hooge has been built at Weihei Shipyard in Shandong, China. She was ordered by German Briese Schiffahrt who subsequently chartered her to CMA CGM. The French carrier will employ the new ship in a feeder loop connecting Hamburg, Rotterdam and St. Petersburg. In October, Briese will receive an identical sister vessel from Weihei. Like its predecessor, the new ship will be chartered by CMA CGM for their Baltic container feeder services. The sister vessel will, just like Hooge, carry the name of a small German island: Süderoog. Charlotte Maersk Bumps Into MSC Jessica Vessels of the world s two largest liner shipping companies were involved in a collision, when Charlotte Maersk hit the much smaller MSC Jessica. The 347m giant Charlotte Maersk had just left the port of Singapore bound for Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The 1980-build MSC Jessica entering the port when the ships collided. There was some damage to the bow of Charlotte Maersk and some empty containers stowed on deck. After the collision, the ship returned to Singapore for inspection. Presently, containership-info does not have any information concerning the extend of damage to MSC Jessica. After the crash, Jessica dropped anchor off Singapore for damage assessment. No injuries and no pollution have been reported. It is still unclear who or what caused the collision. New Gantries for Bremerhaven and Gothenburg Meanwhile most of our readers will know that Emma Maersk, the latest and largest container leviathan, will enter service at Gothenburg on September 8 th this year. However, some might
be unaware of the fact that the Gothenburg terminal presently does not have a single gantry crane suited to serve Emma s 22- row stow. However, help is already underway and it comes in the guise of crane manufacturer ZPMC s transport vessel Zhen Hua 5. The ship has brought three new large gantries to Gothenburg. Each of these can straddle 23 rows of containers. The cranes were transported to Europe fully assembled. They have already been tested at the Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Co s facilities. Nevertheless, they arrive in the nick of time, since it will take a while to set up the cranes and connect them. The gantries are scheduled to be operational just before Emma Maersk arrives at Gothenburg. Zhen Hua five did not only bring three cranes to Sweden. On her way to Gothenburg, the ship delivered two equally sized gantry cranes to the APM Terminal at Bremerhaven. Now every port in the AE 1 loop is fit to accept the E-class of vessels. Surprise: E.R. Ships for MSC Hamburg s E.R. Schiffahrt recently announced something that came as a bit of a surprise: Contrary to what seemed obvious, the last units of E.R. s Hyundai Samho-build 8,200 TEU ships will not be chartered to CMA CGM, but will instead trade for MSC. Three ships of this type are long-term chartered to Coscon who employ them in their AE1, where they support five larger units of 9,500 TEU to complete the eight ship line-up, needed for a weekly service. Originally we concluded, that the remaining units would go to the French Line, where they would eventually represent the majority of the FAL 1 loop s fleet. Lately, your editors understood that the eights ship in the series, E.R. Texas, will not become CMA CGM Faust, but instead be delivered as MSC Bengal in November and join the evergrowing fleet of MSC s +8,000 TEU boats. The last ship in the series will also be delivered to MSC. Originally destined to be handed over as CMA CGM Don Pascoale in Mach next year, the ship will turn out as MSC Xian. In line with MSC tradition to name charter vessels after cities or regions, MSC Bengal carries the name of the region of the lowlands of Eastern India and Bangladesh, home of the beautiful but feared Bengal tigers. Xian on the other hand, is a Chinese city, located in the heart of the giant nation in the Shanxi province. It lies in the southern
Guanzhong Plain. Xian s history can be traced back some 3,100 years. It was once home to most of the famous Chinese dynasties. The famous terra cotta army of worriers and horses is a reminder of those ages and is often praised as the eighth wonder of the world. Even though Xian can be reached on the waterway through rivers and canals, MSC Xian will newer see her namesake city, as Xian lies thousands of kilometres from the ocean. MSC Tomoko Makes Her European Debut This past weekend, Deawoo HI s latest delivery to the Mediterranean Shipping Company premiered in Northern Europe: The new 8,400 TEU MSC Tomoko is employed in the Lion Service that calls at Antwerp, Hamburg and Bremerhaven. At 332.40m length and 43.20m width, Tomoko displaces 107,500 tons. Her MAN B&W 12K98MEC engine accelerates the ship to a maximum speed of 25.4 knots. MSC presently upgrade the Lion loop to ships of +8,000 TEU, using both Deawoo- and Hanjin-build vessels. The brand-new MSC Tomoko passes Walsoorden on the river Scheldt, bound for Hamburg, Germany. Photo: Jan Svendsen
Hanjin 10,000 TEU Ships Update Two weeks ago, we announced that Hanjin Shipping reportedly agreed upon signing five 10,000 TEU ships with Samsung HI. Now this deal has been finalised and the contracts were signed. Hanjin is reported to pay close to USD 133 million per ship, a very high price indeed. The ships cost about USD 3 million more than Cosco s similarly sized ships from Hyundai HI, due for delivery in 2010. Hanjin s new ships will be 350m long and 45.60m wide. They might represent a modified (lengthened) version of Samsungs conteporary Xin Los Angeles type which carries 9,580 TEU at a length of 336m. Again, the company has opted for a high service speed as the ships will travel at nearly 26 knots. Hanjin intends to employ the ships in one of their Transpacific Services. Today, Hanjin is already the second biggest player in this trade, after Maersk Line. APMT Joins Nansha Port Operators Hong Kong is probably the best-know port in the Pearl River delta. In recent years, the ports of the neighbouring Shenzhen region namely Chiwan, Shekou, Yantian and Dragon Bay, have quickly gained significance. They are all located on the eastern banks of the delta and serve a vast a populous hinterland, home to a large manufacturing industry. However, there s another port in the region that easily gets overlooked: Nansha. It is located on the opposite - western - shores of the delta in the Guangdong province and belongs to the greater Canton area. Many large international firms have established factories in the region, which is among the fastest growing in China. Some 50 kilometres south of Canton, Longxue Island has almost completely been developed into a new port area with deepwater access to the Pearl River. In 2004, the Nansha Container Terminal was established on Longxue Island, in place of a former fishermen s village. A joint venture between Guangzhou (Canton) Port Group and Cosco Pacific was set up to operate the terminal. Cosco Pacific presently holds 56% of the company s shares. In 2005, Nansha Container Terminal already accomplished turnover of more than a million TEU. 2005 saw the launch of the second phase of Nansha s port development project, adding four large containership berths,
with a guaranteed water depth of 14.5m. The port s total capacity now stands at an annual 2.5 Mio TEU, possibly even more. Very recently, the operators were joined by APM Terminals, who already collaborate with Cosco Pacific in numerous terminal projects in China. Last week it was announced that Cosco Pacific would sell 34% of their shares in the Nansha Terminal to APMT who now hold a 20% share of the facility. Maersk Line and Cosco are the most important customers at Nasha, along with CSCL and Hanjin. CMA CGM and CSCL Add Super Sling It has been known for quite long that the French Line CMA CGM and China Shipping Container Line (CSCL) planned to introduce a new and jointly operated Asia - Europe service. This new loop was designed as a high capacity supersling, exclusively employing ships of more than 9,000 TEU. The two companies however, never commented this plan and left much room for media speculation. Finally, the start of the new loop was officially announced and not a day too soon: CMA CGM Norma started off the new service with a westbound departure from Yantian on Saturday. In the nomenclature of the French Line (mostly used by us so far) the new loop is called the FAL II. CSCL chose to name it AEX 7. CMA CGM will ultimately bring in four ships of the 9,415 TEU Medea class, while CSCL employs Xin Los Angeles and three of her sisters. These vessels weigh in at 9,600 TEU. The loop s port rotation will be Yantian, Hong Kong, Port Kelang, Le Havre, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Southampton and back via Port Kelang. The fleet line-up will consist of CMA CGM Medea, Norma, Fidelio and Rigoletto. China Shipping bring in the Xin Los Angeles, CSCL Pusan, Xin Shanghai and CSCL Le Havre. Since not all ships of this class are delivered yet, 8,500 TEU units like CSCL Africa will deputise for a roundtrip or two. FAL II s first ship, CMA CGM Norma, will make her European debut in the second half of September. The weekly loop is scheduled to call at Le Havre on Saturday, Rotterdam on Monday, Hamburg on Wednesday and Antwerp on Saturday. The FAL II will be the highest capacity Asia- Europe sling outside Maersk. (Check out the table in newsletter 34/2006 for details.)
More Mid-Sized Ships for CMA CGM We recently announced Danaos Shipping s order for five 6,500 TEU ships at Sungdong Shipbuilding, a newly established shipyard in South Korea. Some sources within the industry report that these ships are destined to trade for CMA CGM. The French Line is believed to have signed a 12-year charter deal for the vessels that will be delivered in 2009. The charter rate supposedly stands at USD 35,000. Sungdong will deliver the first ship in February 2009. After that, a new ship will follow every other month. Furthermore, CMA CGM signed four 6,500 TEU units at Hanjin HI last week. These ships are scheduled for delivery from September 2009. Together, the two series of vessels would neatly fit into a weekly Asia-Europe sling. Reportedly, CMA CGM pay USD 401 million for the quartet. Hanjin HI could already bag up a total of 13 orders for similar (or at least similarly sized) ships for Maersk Line and ISIRL. These will be delivered in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Including these recent orders, CMA CGM s impressing pipeline of either long term chartered or owned newbuilds looks like this: Until the end of 2010, the carrier will take delivery of ten 1,500-2,000 TEU ships, eight 2,000-3,000 TEU ships, two 3,000-4,000 TEU ships, 31(!) 4,000-5,500 TEU ships, nine 5,500-7,000 TEU ships and eight 7,000-10,000 TEU ships. containership photos + vessel data base + newsletter Please check out our website. Another European Debut: Hyundai Hong Kong The third 6,800 TEU unit of a new series designed and built by Hyundai HI has visited Rotterdam and Hamburg on her maiden voyage: Hyundai Hong Kong follows her earlier sisters Shanghai
and Busan into Hyundai Merchant Marine s Far East - Europe loop. The 304m vessel called at Rotterdam on August 24 th and later arrived at Hamburg on the 26 th. Hyundai Hong Kong at Hamburg s Altenwerder terminal. Photo: Jan Tiedemann Yantian Container Terminal From a European perspective, the sheer size and number of port development projects in China seems almost unbelievable. In case of the latest enlargement of Yantian s container terminal facilities, the speed of construction is mind-boggling, too: Only last week, the Shenzhen Port Authority published a note on the progress of the third development phase of the Yantian terminal. Amazingly, the terminal already nears completion, some two years ahead of schedule. Obviously, the local authorities and developers secured more than sufficient manpower and funding for the project as well as very efficient project management and logistics. Yantian port s third development phase consists of four new berths with a total quay length of 1,400m. The water depth at the docks is 16m. All berths are designed and fitted out to cater the needs of containers of the latest generation, with gantry cranes that have an outreach of 23 rows. Two of the berths are especially designed to accommodate mega carriers of 400m. The first
such ship to call at the port will be (you guessed it) Emma Maersk on October 14 th. The 136ha terminal is entirely build on reclaimed land in Yantian Bay. Construction work took just two years, and reportedly cost some USD 753 million. The terminal will be operated by Hong Kong s Hutchison Port Holding. The four new berths will boost Yantian s annual capacity to 7.66 million TEU. According to Shenzhen Customs statistics, the city's ports (including Yantian) handled 3.8 million TEU during the first quarter of this year. This figure represents an increase of 12.5 % over the corresponding period in 2005. Since the first quarter is generally less busy than the rest of the year, an estimate near 17 million TEU might be realistic for 2006. Cosco Germany Christened Time is money, and obviously there was too little time to christen Cosco Germany, one of several new 8,200 TEU carriers managed by German E.R. Schiffahrt, on the occasion of her first arrival at Hamburg. Balloons soar and ship s whistles sound as Cosco Germany is christened at Hamburg s Tollerort. Photo: Jan Tiedemann However, the company finally caught up with this and christened the ship on Monday. The ceremony was held on a
small excursion vessel berthed alongside Cosco Germany, while the container ship loaded at Hamburg s Tollerort Terminal on a regularly scheduled visit. The editors of Containership-Info wish the ship many happy returns. *** 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 Bert Vernimmen, Helge Barth and Klaus Masuch.