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CMA CGM Newbuild Becomes Largest French-Flagged Containership

11th September 2015

#BigBoxBoat – Worldwide shipping operator, CMA CGM has been delivered the largest containership under the French flag, the 18,000 TEU (twenty equivalent unit) capacity CMA CGM Bougainville.

At 400m in length the newbuild dimensions are impressive, her hull is almost four football fields when measured from end to end and with a beam of 54m.

She is the fourth in a series bearing the names of great explorers. CMA CGM Bougainville is a tribute to the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who led, as Captain, the first French official world tour in the 18th Century.

One of her sisters is CMA CGM Kerguelen, which appears in the video above.

In a globalized economy, this gigantic vessels has the capacity to transport almost 200,000 tons of goods between European, Middle East and Asian markets and becomes a key element in such trades.

This giant of the seas was delivered late last month from Korean shipyard Samsung and CMA CGM Bourgainville begun its first rotation by calling at Asian ports.

She is deployed on one of the most emblematic lines of the CMA CGM Group, the FAL service linking to Europe to Asia. Sailing schedules involve calling at Le Havre every 77 days.

It is understood that on her first rotation she had already docked at Shanghai on September 5th. The next port of call is scheduled for Port Klang this coming September 13th. Following this, she heads to the Suez two days later and reach Algeciras on October 1st to finally arrive at Le Havre on October 5th.

CMA CGM Bougainville is equipped with all the latest environmental technologies, allowing her to become one of the world’s greenest transportation solutions. Thanks to the latest environmental technologies on board and the optimization of her hydrodynamics, her CO2 emissions/km are historically low.

In fact, the vessel’s CO2 emissions average at only 37g of CO2/km for each container, energy efficiency almost three times higher than recorded by the group’s fleet 10 years ago.

Published in Ports & Shipping
Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

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