French container transport firm has pulled the 18,000 TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin from the trans-pacific market, formally ending – or no less than suspending – U.S. west coast ports’ plans to host so-called mega-ships.

Beginning later this month, the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin might be redeployed on CMA CGM’s FAL 1 service connecting Asia with northern Europe, based on the corporate’s web site.

The Benjamin Franklin made its U.S. debut in late December as the most important ship ever to name in North America. The calls have been meant as the primary in a sequence of trial runs at U.S. west coast ports – particularly Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, and one cease in Seattle – so as check the ports’ potential to deal with the mega-ships that till then had solely been deployed between Asia and northern Europe.

The trial runs have been deemed a hit, main CMA CGM to announce in March that it will deploy a complete of six 18,000 TEU ships on its Pearl River Express line, describing the trans-Pacific market “the most active and dynamic market to date”. But inside simply six weeks, CMA CGM mentioned it was cancelling these plans citing weak situations out there.

According to CMA CGM’s web site, the Benjamin Franklin is to start service on the FAL 1 route on May 23 in Shanghai and ending in Southampton July 3.

And identical to that, no extra mega-ships within the United States.