French container delivery firm CMA CGM has confirmed that beginning in the long run of May it’s going to deploy six 18,000 TEU ‘megaships’ between Asia and U.S. west coast ports.

The ships would be the largest to name recurrently in North America.

The firm says the choice to deploy its ‘flagship fleet’ is according to the corporate’s progress technique within the United States and all over the world, calling the trans-Pacific market “the most active and dynamic market to date”.

The resolution follows 399-meter lengthy CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin’s two visits to the U.S. west coast final December and once more in February, setting the file for the biggest ship ever to name within the United States. The sequence of 4 trial-calls – together with the port of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland and Seattle – meant to check U.S. west coast port’s means to accommodate bigger vessels. The trial-calls had been hailed as a hit, however nonetheless many have questioned whether or not U.S. west coast are ready to deal with megaships regularly.

CMA CGM stated Friday that the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin will stay on the Pearl River Express line, with the opposite 5 different 18,000 TEU vessels becoming a member of her in the long run of May. The 5 different ships are the CMA CGM Bougainville, CMA CGM Kerguelen, CMA CGM Georg Forster, CMA CGM Vasco de Gama, and CMA CGM Zheng He.

The six ships are a part of a brand new breed of so-called ‘megaships’, or Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCVs), which might be being constructed at shipyards in Asia by among the largest carriers to extend capability and effectivity on the world’s busiest delivery routes, however till now ships of this dimension have been deployed completely between Asia to northern Europe. The vessels measure as much as 400 meters lengthy (1,312 ft.) and are designed to hold greater than 18,000, and in some circumstances even 19,000 twenty-foot equal containers (TEU).

To accommodate these greater ships, ports in Europe have spent tens of millions to enhance infrastructure, together with adjusting water depth, pier size, and introducing taller cranes, in addition to enhancing the effectivity of coping with cargo.