MEGA ships, 18,000 TEUers among them, are coming are coming to the United States with the first to arrive being the 17,859-TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin which has entered the transpacific trade, reports American Shipper.
CMA CGM schedules reveal the ship is scheduled to make it's first call at Los Angeles on - fittingly enough on December 26, Boxing Day. It would be the biggest ship to ever call at a US port - much larger than the 8,200-TEUers in the same string.
Port executives speaking during a panel discussion at the Informa Cargo Logistics America conference in San Diego all said they expect an increase in the size of containerships calling at their ports in the next few years.
Long Beach port business development chief Don Snyder said the biggest ships calling his port have 14,000 TEUers. "But we are hearing in very short order that an 18,000-TEU or two 18,000-TEU ships may come.
"Ocean carriers do not give a lot of advance notice because they are reacting to the marketplace," he said.
Susan Coffey, Northwest Seaport Alliance commercial chief, said Seattle and Tacoma are expecting an 18,000-TEU ship will call. Today terminals see 10,000-TEU ships and have worked ships as large as 13,000 TEU, she said.
The biggest ship to call at Charleston was 9,600 TEU and the biggest to date on the east coast has been about 10,000 TEU, according to Byron Miller, marketing chief at the South Carolina Ports Authority.
Mr Miller did not expect ships bigger than 10,000 TEU until the New York-New Jersey Bayonne Bridge was raised to gain the air draft mega ships require to access local terminals.
Miami port's development chief Eric Olafson expects 14,000-TEUers to call once the expanded Panama Canal opens next year.
PORTS
08 December 2015 - 23:25
17,859-TEUer debuts in LA as CMA CGM Ben Franklin docks on Boxing Day
MEGA ships, 18,000 TEUers among them, are coming are coming to the United States with the first to arrive being the 17,859-TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin which has entered the transpacific trade, reports American Shipper.
PORTS
08 December 2015 - 23:25
17,859-TEUer debuts in LA as CMA CGM Ben Franklin docks on Boxing Day
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