Big COSCO ship calls Hamburg this week

   The Port of Hamburg said the COSCO Belgium, the first of eight, new 13,380-TEU ships that COSCO is putting into service will arrive at HHLA’s Container Terminal Tollerort on Thursday.
   The ship is deployed on the CKYH Alliance’s weekly Asia-Europe NE3 service from Hamburg, calling at HHLA‘s Container Terminal Tollerort. From Hamburg, the COSCO Belgium will continue its voyage on April 13 via Antwerp to Yantian, Hong Kong, Xingang, Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo and Singapore, returning again to Hamburg within around 26 days via Rotterdam and Felixstowe.
   The port noted China is by a wide margin the Port of Hamburg’s leading trade partner for seaborne container traffic. In 2012, about 2.6 million TEUs were transported between Hamburg and ports in China, including Hong Kong. That represents about 30 percent of total container throughput at Hamburg container terminals.
   In December 2012, the world’s largest containership with more than 16,000 TEUs of capacity, the CMA CGM Marco Polo called at HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai.
   Sabine Zilski of Port of Hamburg marketing said Hamburg has no problem handling ultra-large containerships since its terminals are equipped with modern gantry cranes and offer very long berths.
   “The only restriction is the fairway of the river Elbe that allows a maximum of 15.1-meter draught for ships arriving into Hamburg, dependent on the tides,” she said.
   When the CMA CGM Marco Polo called at Hamburg last year, Claudia Roller, chief executive officer for Port of Hamburg’s marketing, called for “a swift decision from the Federal Administrative Court on the start of work to dredge the shipping channel.” – Chris Dupin