CMA CGM begins operating Kingston Container Terminal

The French ocean carrier began operating the Kingston Container Terminal last Friday under a concession it won last year.    French ocean carrier CMA CGM began operating the Kingston Container Terminal on July 1 under a concession it won last year.
   CMA CGM said it will begin improvements on the port immediately. Dredging and infrastructural developments will be undertaken by the companies EMCC, along with Vinci, Jan de Nul.
   “The widening of the Panama canal, inaugurated on June 26, 2016, allows vessels up to 14,000 TEUs to cross the canal,” CMA CGM said. “The Kingston hub location is strategic: at the entrance of the canal and at the crossroads of the North/South and East/West lines.”
   Kingston will be one of CMA CGM’s seven primary hubs. The carrier’s other hubs are located in Singapore; Port Kelang, Malaysia; Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates; Malta; Tangier, Morocco; and Reunion Island.
   In 2015, Kingston handled 1.65 million TEUs, according to statistics provided by the American Association of Port Authorities.
   CMA GGM has improvements planned to increase its annual capacity up to 3.6 million TEUs, the carrier said. The terminal is a common user facility open to all shipping companies.
   “The terminal extension will elevate Kingston to within the top three Caribbean container terminals,” CMA CGM said. “New equipment will facilitate transshipment operations towards the whole region thanks to connection services lines.”
   Once completed, the port said it will offer 2,400 meters of wharf,15.5 meters draught and 80 hectares (198 acres) of surface for staging and storing containers. The facility will have 14 gantry cranes, later increasing to 16 and finally 18, plus 60 straddle-carriers.
   Farid T. Salem, an executive officers at CMA CGM, said the Kingston Terminal will strengthen CMA CGM network of hub ports.
   Taking into account terminals operated by APL, which CMA CGM recently acquired, CMA CGM today operates 33 terminals with three in development.