GERMANY's largest port of Hamburg will for the first time handle a 19,100-TEU vessel, the CSCL Globe, deployed on the Europe-Asia lane, and sparking urgent calls for the dredging of the River Elbe.
Experts are warning that draft restrictions make it impossible for newbuildings to sail on the Elbe fully laden, meaning that part of the cargo has to left at rival Rotterdam.
Shanghai's China Shipping Container Lines' (CSCL) newbuilding was built at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea to be followed by four sister ships in the next year.
The 400-metre containership will be discharging and loading 11,000 TEU during her first call at the Eurogate Container Terminal in Hamburg.
But managing director of China Shipping Agency Niels Harnack stressed that the dredging and widening of the navigation channel on the Lower and Outer Elbe is urgently needed to enable transport chains to run efficiently.
One extra metre of draft on the Elbe would enable mega-containerships such as the CSCL Globe to transport 1,000 TEU+ more.
The AEX 1 liner service, on which she is deployed, serves the ports of Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangzhou-Nansha, Shenzhen-Yantian, Singapore, Port Kelang, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Zeebrugge.
Port authorities estimate that box volumes originating in China will reach the three million TEU mark this year.
PORTS
15 January 2015 - 20:20
Hamburg port handles first 19,100-TEUer despite shallow Elbe
GERMANY's largest port of Hamburg will for the first time handle a 19,100-TEU vessel, the CSCL Globe, deployed on the Europe-Asia lane, and sparking urgent calls for the dredging of the River Elbe.
PORTS
15 January 2015 - 20:20
Hamburg port handles first 19,100-TEUer despite shallow Elbe
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