16,000-TEU CMA CGM ship enters service

   With dimensions that might have stunned even France’s greatest writer of science fiction, CMA CGM said the third in a series of 16,000-TEU containerships, CMA CGM Jules Verne, will enter service today.
   Sister ship to the CMA CGM Marco Polo and CMA CGM Alexander Von Humbodt, the new ship will be 396 meters long and 54 meters wide, far exceeding Captain Nemo’s Nautilus, which was just 70 meters wide and eight feet in diameter. The new ship will fly the French flag.
   It will will  begin its first rotation in Pusan, South Korea, and will be used in the carrier’s French Asia Line (FAL 1) service. The rotation is Pusan, Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Xiamen, Chiwan, Yantian, Port Kelang, Suez, Malta, Marseilles, Tanger, Southampton, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Malta, Suez, Khor Al Fakkan, Jebel Ali, Port Kelang, Ningbo, and Pusan.
   To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the CMA CGM Group, the ship will make a deviation from its regular rotation and call Marseilles, where she will be inaugurated on June 4 in the presence of François Hollande, president of the France. – Chris Dupin